Crusaders vs Blues kick to touch in the 3rd minute

[buff]

[FONT=&quot]In the 3rd minute Blue is penalized and Red kick for touch. Blue 15, standing well in touch, jumps, knocks the ball back in play after it crosses the plane, then lands back in touch. AR and ref play on. That situation is not covered in 18.2. Did the AR and ref make a mistake, or am I missing something?
Thanks[/FONT]

 

[beckett50]

18.2 (b) seems to cover what you have described

• A player jumps, from within or outside the playing area, and catches the ball, and then lands in the playing area, regardless of whether the ball reached the plane of touch.

 

[buff]

Playing area: The field of play plus the in-goal areas. The touch lines, touch-in-goal lines and dead-ball lines are not part of the playing area.

According to the definition of playing area, Blue 15 did not land in the playing area.

 

[Dickie E]

Yes, that is a mistake. If not, then a player could be in the 4th row of the grandstand, jump in the air and, while airborne, punch the ball back into FoP.

As a general rule, if the ball has crossed plane of touch, the jumper has to either start or finish in playing area.

 

[buff]

Yes, that is a mistake. If not, then a player could be in the 4th row of the grandstand, jump in the air and, while airborne, punch the ball back into FoP.

As a general rule, if the ball has crossed plane of touch, the jumper has to either start or finish in playing area.

That's the way I have looked at it since they rewrote the laws. We don't see mistakes in application of law at that level very often so I thought it best to check.

 

[tim White]

I think we can agree the AR made the mistake, you can hardly blame a ref for a touchline decision when there is a touchline expert who has a much better view of events.