Stu10
Referees in England
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2020
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- Current Referee grade:
- Level 15 - 11
yes - but... IF its called!
And IF it would be. then in essence the inability to not contest a catcher on landing sets up a mexican stand off. the catching team cant bind and drive ... -> flying wedge.
So now the ball ALWAYS has to be passed away... so that doenst help develop mauling.
we can pontificate tyhat that may not be such a bad thing, but Im not concinced removing otherwise standard tacticalk accepted practycies is a good idea.
Others' MMV!
We've had this discussion before in another thread... I'm sticking to my previous position, if following the laws strictly, the ball carrier plus one latcher can initiate the maul (or run through the gap), then when contact is made by defenders everyone can join in.
I do believe the catcher in the lineout should be switched on to keeping hold of the ball and heading up the pitch... for example in OP scenario 2, if the defenders stay in the lineout but move aside to leave a hole, the ball carrier at the front should take advantage.
I also think this relates to a different thread that I created in which a visiting team were leaving the line early, before the hooker threw, and had a 4 man maul pre-bound and ready to drive before the catcher had even come down... I would have penalised it, but the ref on the day let it go.
Related, I left my own team dismayed last week when we won a lineout 5m out, they formed up for a maul and moved the ball to the back and started to trundle, but the defence parted ways and let them go through and over the try line before I even realised what had happened... I brought it back for accidental offside.
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