Restart after handbags

[anbocmorrua]

How could the wiser head amongst you deal with this better?

Recent u16s friendly: Red kick (very) long to clear their lines after a ruck at their 22. No red players have started to chase the kick yet but Blue fullback is probably able to cover the kick. At the same time I notice an altercation between 2 players quite close to the 22 who are "continuing the ruck". I think someone is likely to throw a punch so I stop the game. After handshakes, I decided to restart at the point of the altercation with a scrum to Blue, reasoning that Red had kicked the ball away and were not in possession. No one had actual possession of the ball when I stopped the game. Was that correct?

What actually happened next was: The Red captain questioned the decision, respectfully, and said it should have been a scrum to Red where the ball landed (at the Blue 22). Then, the Blue player actually decided he wasn't done and gave everyone a mouthful, so I awarded a penalty to Red, after telling the Blue captain that this will not happen again.

Rest of game was uneventful.

 

[jdeagro]

Going off rough memory, I think pedantically deep in the laws, scrum restarts for most trivial reasons (e.g. unplayable at a ruck) are outlined to be given to the team last moving forward, and if no team was moving forward, then the attacking team (attacking team being defined based on which half of the pitch the ball is currently in).

That being said, I find it rare that's how the laws are applied in such scenarios, and usually I find refs award it to the team last in possession, despite what the laws say.

I think in practice, generally we're supposed to just make a logical decision with your best judgement and sell it, for these specific corner cases. So I can kind of see your decision.

I personally probably would've given scrum to blue near where the ball landed / was going to land though. Just feels more logical to me, if it's a blue scrum.

I know none of that directly answers your question, but hopefully it helps.

 

[Phil E]

Game stopped, and no offence committed.
So the referee awards a scrum for any other reason not covered in law.
Scrum at the closet point to the stoppage.
Put in to the team last moving forward. As Red had kicked the ball forward and it hadn't been gathered by blue, I would say Red put in at the place of the stoppage, back in the Red 22.

 

[didds]

or you sell it as a red scrum on half way as "the ball was over the half way line when I blew" *cough cough*

 

[Marc Wakeham]

Game stopped, and no offence committed.
So the referee awards a scrum for any other reason not covered in law.
Scrum at the closet point to the stoppage.
Put in to the team last moving forward. As Red had kicked the ball forward and it hadn't been gathered by blue, I would say Red put in at the place of the stoppage, back in the Red 22.

I concur