[Law] Length of Advantage - Law 8

[Jimbo551]

There appears to be inconsistency in the way that the Advantage Law is being applied. We know it is at the sole discretion of the referee but the length of time it goes on seems erratic. Someone last night said that there had been a protocol to say that the length of advantage depended if it was a Penalty Advantage or a Free Kick Advantage. The implication of his statement was that a Penalty Advantage would continue regardless of ground gained until either side committed another offence (or in his mind until the none offending team scored)and if that meant bringing the PK back 20-30-50 metres that was OK. Sounds nonsense to me but is there any guidance on the application of the Advantage Law?

 

[Dickie E]

There appears to be inconsistency in the way that the Advantage Law is being applied. We know it is at the sole discretion of the referee but the length of time it goes on seems erratic. Someone last night said that there had been a protocol to say that the length of advantage depended if it was a Penalty Advantage or a Free Kick Advantage. The implication of his statement was that a Penalty Advantage would continue regardless of ground gained until either side committed another offence (or in his mind until the none offending team scored)and if that meant bringing the PK back 20-30-50 metres that was OK. Sounds nonsense to me but is there any guidance on the application of the Advantage Law?

Hi Jimbo,

generally speaking we allow advantage to continue until there is the equivalent outcome to the sanction applicable to the offence.

So for a knock on, which has a scrum sanction, we will look for advantage equivalent to a scrum outcome (2 or 3 passes and some gain in ground).

For a penalty infringement (eg offside) we will look for advantage equivalent to a penalty kick (significant gain in ground & tactical advantage).

If the penalty infringement is within kicking distance for a penalty goal the referee will take that into account and, for elite games, will not normally call advantage over until there is a score. If no score within a handful of phases, then back for the penalty

 

[Camquin]

And generally if you kick away a scrum advantage, that is advantage over but you woould bring back a penalty advantage - due the a PK getting the throw in.

FK advantage would be similar to scrum.

Elite refs want a scrum advantage to go on longer as their scrums take longer and inevitably turn into penalties so they are looking to avoid them.

 

[Pegleg]

When considering "kick possession away" ask yourself was a kick the only option. The defender must not be under undue pressure for me.

 

[timmad]

Advantage is a difficult equation involving possession and / or territory plus elapse time and taking into consideration the scrum / free kick / penalty differential. But I thought Jimbo's question was also asking if some elite referees were allowing longer for advantage to accrue than others: are teams aware of this?

 

[crossref]

I think referees need to pay more attention to the time wasted by playing a very long advantage with nothing coming from it. Wasting time benefits the winning team in a close game

 

[Pegleg]

Indeed playing advantage for advantages sake. Nothing doing move on.

 

[Jimbo551]

Thank you to everyone who responded. Certainly clarified this in my mind and I have a better understanding of the application now.

 

[MrQeu]

IIRC, Ireland asked for short advantages to be played in the previous world cup. Especially in the game against Australia.

If the ref conveyed or not and how it was managed, I have no recollection of.