"Can't intentionally knock the ball back. Off you go"
:wtf:
England v Scotland 1884
At that time, each side provided an Umpire and teams had to appeal to the Umpires on infringements. If the Umpires agreed, the appeal would be allowed. If they didn't, the recent innovation of a neutral referee would decide.
In the days when only goals counted, England had a try to nil (effectively a draw) when a Scot knocked back the ball in a lineout near his own line. An Englishman was first to ground it and claimed a try, but there followed some ten minutes or more of discussion over the laws since the Scots claimed that knocking the ball back was illegal, so it should have been a scrum against them.
There was no advantage law as such in those days. Eventually the referee allowed the try, and what proved to be the the winning goal was duly kicked.
However you could also appeal to your Union on points of law, and the result of a game could be changed as a consequence, so the Scots pursued their case. There was a waspish exchange of letters. At the time the Scots had their own "Green Book" of laws which did indeed disallow knocking the ball in any direction. However the game was played in England and therefore under English laws, which allowed such a play.
The referee was Irish (and had played against both countries the previous year). When asked for a formal opinion he wrote:
"
It seems to me frivolous to say that the interpretation of the rule has anything to do with settlement of the point. For, if the knocking back were lawful there is no ground for an appeal; if unlawful the English team had a right to take advantage of the mistake."
The Scots dug their heels in and refused to play England the next year unless their argument was accepted, so no game was played. In 1886 a meeting of the four Home Countries was held before the internationals and Scotland agreed to accept the referee's verdict "for the good of the game".
Wales and Ireland were also in dispute and did not play each other in 1885 or 1886, This all led to the setting up of the International Board a few years later.