rereading law11 - offsides in general play

[mkottke]

I was just brushing up on the law and I noticed the penalty for law 11.1 isn't given until law 11.4. Just curious why or what benifit do the authors wait until the 10m law to state the penalty for open play. Just baffling to me and makes me scratch my head and wonder if there is any missed underlining interpretation.

Law 11.4.f
Penalty: When a player is penalised for being offside in general play, the opposing team chooses either a penalty kick at the place of infringement or a scrum at the place where the offending team last played the ball. If it was last played in that team’s in-goal, the scrum is formed 5 metres from the goal line in line with where it was played.

-Mark

 

[beckett50]

When I read the LotG I see that each sub paragraph as the next phase of play. So, in this instance because it is the same phase of play and the same sanction applies the Law writers decided to draft this way.

However, who knows what goes through their minds.

Over to OB for a succinct dissection of the why's and wherefors and what is wrong with this Law as it is drafted

 

[OB..]

The 2000 re-write significantly expanded (and improved) this part of the law, but I have no idea why they chose such a clumsy way of including the sanctions.