I disagree. The laws say the ball in this scenario should be played "immediately".
Five seconds is not "immediately".
Law 16 says the ball must be immediately
available (and I agree the ball carrier should not be allowed 5 seconds to wriggle the ball out the back of the maul and make it available), but it does not say it must subsequently be
played immediately... the only part of law 16 that mentions how quickly the ball must be played is section 16.17.e, which is why I quoted that earlier, and this (use it - 5 seconds) makes perfect sense to me (as a player and referee) in terms of reasonable game management.
Often the terms used in the laws are not defined and reasonable game management should be applied, IMHO. For example, (12.13.b) a drop out "must be taken without delay"...
is this the same as immediately? Is the kicker permitted a number of seconds to scan the field and wait for teammates to be ready for the kick, or must he kick it within 1-2 seconds after he picks up the ball, or within 2 seconds after the ball was grounded (OK, getting stupid now
)? If the ball comes out the back of the maul and is immediately available, as per this topic, is the scrum-half allowed reasonable time (5 seconds?) to scan the field and check where his runners are before he picks the ball up? (I only referee age grade at present, so I am going to be more lenient than 'immediate' because the scrum-half is less likely to have assessed his options in advance, hence 5 seconds to use it, but safety comes first and I will blow immediately if the maul is about to collapse and put someone at risk).
16.17e is a different 'availability' to 16.17d, when the ball has to be 'immediately available' when the BC goes to ground and thus the maul is over. 16.17e is for when 16.15 is in force (the referee instructs the team in possession in a maul to use the ball).
Is there any guidance that clearly states 16.17.e only applies to 16.15 and cannot be applied the the current situation presented by the OP. Getting into the wording of Law 16 more, is the maul over when the ball carrier goes to ground? Law 16.16 says the maul is over when the ball is on the ground, but does not say the maul is over when the ball carrier goes to ground... what if he goes to ground and still has a hand under the ball? Is he obliged to release the ball onto the ground (then the maul is over per 16.16.b, but I would argue some game management on how play continues is required at this point) - this is not stated anywhere I can see, and, for example, a tackled player on the ground that is not held is not obliged to release the ball onto the ground.
IMHO, common sense says if the ball is presented at the foot of the maul by the ball carrier who has gone to ground, it seems appropriate to apply 16.17.e and tell the scrum-half to use it and give the standard 5 seconds associated with that instruction. The other options are to blow the whistle if the scrum-half does not pick-up the ball within 1-2 seconds ("immediately"... at my age I'm not sure I can even bend down that fast
) which seems harsh, especially at age grade; or declare maul over -->open play and allow players to stream around and engulf the tangled mess of players that were in the maul, which does not strike me as good game management.
Apologies if I'm coming over as argumentative, I genuinely want to examine, discuss and learn.