England v Portugal and the last restart.

[Chogan]

The clock had run to 0:00 between Portugal converting a penalty and taking the restart. The ref had indicated that there was time for the restart. I have no problem with that. The hooter went long after the penalty was kicked and Both teams were on the way to lining up for the restart.
Portugal then took the restart, as is the way in 7s, and the ball was kicked directly to touch. I believe it had crossed the 10m line before going into touch. Lets take it that it did.
The ref then said the game was to continue by awarding a FK to England on the half way line. Fine, but the clock was long dead by now.
At what point does that ball become legally in play and there is no legislation for the ball being kicked too high so that a player could not catch it? It can't be Portugal's fault that England didn't have a 12ft tall player there to catch the ball.

 

[OB..]

The clock had run to 0:00 between Portugal converting a penalty and taking the restart. The ref had indicated that there was time for the restart. I have no problem with that. The hooter went long after the penalty was kicked and Both teams were on the way to lining up for the restart.
Portugal then took the restart, as is the way in 7s, and the ball was kicked directly to touch. I believe it had crossed the 10m line before going into touch. Lets take it that it did.
The ref then said the game was to continue by awarding a FK to England on the half way line. Fine, but the clock was long dead by now.
At what point does that ball become legally in play and there is no legislation for the ball being kicked too high so that a player could not catch it? It can't be Portugal's fault that England didn't have a 12ft tall player there to catch the ball.

IRB RUling 2 of 2010

Ruling of the Designated Members of the Rugby Committee
The Designated Members have ruled that if there has been a score towards the end of the game and there is time for the kick off to take place but time will expire immediately after the kick and the kicker:
• Does not kick the ball ten metres
• Kicks the ball directly into touch
• Kicks the ball dead on or over the opponents touch-in-goal or dead ball
line

The referee will offer the non-offending team the options provided by Law 13.7, 13.8 and 13.9 respectively and the match continues until the ball next becomes dead.

 

[crossref]

the referee was right - there's a clarification somewhere that says that when time is up kicking a restart (or a 22m) directly into touch doesn't end the game.

 

[Phil E]

It can't be Portugal's fault that England didn't have a 12ft tall player there to catch the ball.

Hmmm....and it can't be Englands fault that Portugal can't kick into a rectangle 40m by 70m?

See OB's answer regarding IRB clarification.

 

[didds]

it was probably that cheat Cristiano Ronaldo wot kicked it directly into touch.


allegedly

didds

 

[MrQeu]

Just saw the game. Even though he was right on that, I think the referee's latest moments of the match weren't a great performance themselves. He missed an englishman playing the portuguese without the ball 7 meters from the try line (spotted by the AR) and he was going to cock up the restart, giving it to England (XV style), only to be corrected by the AR at the last resort.