So, OB.. asked the RFU about this --
My second knotty point concerned the possibility of a maul turnover if the maul followed immediately after a restart kick.
I pointed out that the law could be parsed in two contradictory ways:-
There is ambiguity in the wording of 16.18 .
(caught an opponent's kick) (in open play) [open play follows a restart kick]
or
(caught) (an opponent's kick in open play)[does not apply to a restart kick]
This is resolved in favour of the latter.
Here's the Law again
[LAWS]
16.18 If a maul is formed immediately after a player has directly caught an opponent’s kick in open play, a scrum that is awarded for any of the above reasons will be to the team of the ball catcher.[/LAWS]
Well, even though I have this a hundred times, I always read it as
"
a player has directly caught an opponent’s kick in open play"
it never occured to me that it could be read as
"a player has directly caught
an opponent’s kick in open play"
Which is how RFU answered OB..
So, let's go with that.
So from a restart kick, maul forms, uplayable, scrum goes to the kicking team (as it did in 2017)
But now of course, we have the problem of catching a kick from a Penalty Kick -- because following the RFU's interpretation - this also leads to a scrum to the kicking team ... which is a change from 2017 Law Book when it would have been the catching team