21.8: [LAWS](e) Charging the free kick. Once they have retired the necessary distance, players of the opposing team may charge and try to prevent the kick being taken. They may charge the free kick as soon as the kicker starts to approach to kick. [/LAWS]
Question from 7s:
Kick-off goes dead in goal and referee awards FK on halfway. Non-offending team run the ball as hard as they can back to halfway for a quickish FK. At what point can their opponents charge the FK?
It's a great question - and I wonder why Dickie chose the scenario with the ball farthest away from the centre line? Was it because then the KO team is deep in enemy territory and thus less likely to get back in time? Regardless, let's remember that other scenarios also result in FK at the centre, and when the KO fails to go 10m everyone is in fairly close proximity.
There seems to be two parts to this question:
a) can a player 10m back charge the FK even if some of his team mates are ahead of the 10m line? and
b) when does a player, running to get to the mark, "approach to kick"?
Taking the first one, the non-offending team is looking to get an advantage from a quick FK. Generally, if the oppo fail to get behind the line we'll treat that new offence as immaterial - indeed, it is part of the non-offending team's advantage, as the offenders have fewer defenders in play. If the (perfectly legal) charge impacts adversely on the kicker or his options, then the advantage of the quick kick has been negated and we simply retake the kick.
To the second point, in my head (though without any authority at all), I consider "approaching to kick" really means "Addressing the Ball". So approaching the mark from where the kick is to be taken is not necessarily "approaching to kick". There can be very few players in the world (if any) who can drop-kick a ball from a sprint. So the moment the kicker slows down to get the stride pattern and everything else right to kick - that moment for me is when he starts to "approach to kick". I believe there must be a difference between sprinting to the line and approaching to kick - otherwise, in Dickie's scenario the moment a possible kicker moves toward the centre line, an oppo who was previously behind the 10m line can simply walk up to the centre line and get in the kicker's face.
