[Law] Ankle Taps

[crossref]

so players executing a tap never push the ankle/foot/shin?

didds

no, they don't, -- they tap it!

I don't really understand where you are all going with this, a push and a tap are quite clearly different.

eg he pushed the door, he tapped the door. they are quite different things.


NB I'm not trying to say ankle-taps are illegal, or course they are not, they are a long established, customary, legal part of the game, but not properly covered in the Law book.

 

[OB..]

I don't really understand where you are all going with this, a push and a tap are quite clearly different.

"Tap tackle" is not in the laws. It is just a standard way of referring to a particular action.

NB I'm not trying to say ankle-taps are illegal, or course they are not, they are a long established, customary, legal part of the game, but not properly covered in the Law book.

I would suggest that you are only asking for a very minor clarification that nobody really needs, since we are all happy with the current situation. I don't see a problem.

 

[thepercy]

1. the beauty of the ankle tap, is that it gives the would be tackler a second chance to bring the ball carrier down.
2. I would strongly discourage player trying to hug (or hold) the ankle of a player determined to run away.

The first technique causes the ball carrier to fall in a heap. While the second may well end with the tackler getting a face full of studs as the ball carrier pulls his foot away.

I once in a last ditch effort attempted a tap tackle with my face. It did not end well. I caught the back two studs of the ball carrier on either side of one eye (10 and 17 stitches), and to add insult to injury he still scored the try.

 

[Ian_Cook]

And the ball carrier would not be allowed to jump to avoid the ankle tap as this would be illegal.

Law reference?

 

[Ian_Cook]

NB I'm not trying to say ankle-taps are illegal, or course they are not, they are a long established, customary, legal part of the game, but not properly covered in the Law book.

In the same way that Fending/Handing Off wasn't!

 

[Dickie E]

Law reference?

Some thread on here from a long time ago.

Found it: 'jumping the tackler' thread from 10/7/14.

Some think jumping to avoid a regular tackle is illegal. Presumably same applies to a tap tackle from behind.

 

[Taff]

... Found it: 'jumping the tackler' thread from 10/7/14. Some think jumping to avoid a regular tackle is illegal. Presumably same applies to a tap tackle from behind.

I'm not sure if this is the same thing, but I always understood that "jumping into the tackle" was illegal.

I can't give a law reference. I just assumed it came under "Dangerous Play".

 

[Pegleg]

Well prehaps the wording IS important and not pedantry?

A Tap tackle is not a tackle. It can't be in law. So maybe the question is it legal to "push", "tap", "strike", "trip" (chose your own alternative) a player in the way we see in the action inaccurately described as a "tap tackle".

If you say the playyer is tripping ot striking the that suggests foul play where as pushing is clearly legal in law. Perhaps the law writers need to regularise the action, as they did with the hand off. either make it "officially" legal or illegal.

But then a clear & comprehensible rewrite of the law book aint going to happen!

 

[crossref]

it will be like hand-offs - eventually there will be a freak injury where an ankle tap was involved (perhaps someone will be ankle tapped from behind, lose balance and collide head first with a post, or something like that). From the the injury there will be an insurance case and lawyers will head to the Law book to see whether ankle taps like that, which are essentially trips, are actually legal ? They will conclude that it's not clear.
Expert witnesses will explain in court that - even though a technical reading of the Law Book might suggest they are illegal - in fact they are a long established and customary part of the game.
A few months later the IRB will insert a phrase into the Law book to formalise the situation.

 

[didds]

and the lawyers will get rich and will live happily ever after.