Debate over the law this week revolves around the obstruction that led to the mid-air collision during Friday night’s Challenge Cup final between the Sharks and Gloucester.
The tiresome tactics of some teams exploiting a loophole in the law needs to be removed.
37th minute Sharks at Gloucester. Adam Hastings plants a high restart that Aphelele Fassi rises to – very lucky she wasn’t booked for pulling Zach Mercer in the air in the opening seconds.
Shark obstruction
In front of him, three Sharks players – Phepsi Buthelezi, Francois Venter and Ethan Hooker move backwards from their starting points towards where the ball falls; so they are in Gloucester’s side of the ball. The kick is very high, so all three have enough time.
Gloucester’s Ollie Thorley also heads to the point where the ball drops; again, as the kick is excellent, he has plenty of time to get under it and challenge Fassi.
A trio of Sharks players suddenly stop in front of Fassi, all three in an almost perfect line. The kind of wall Beckham would like to bend. Unfortunately, Thorley doesn’t have that luxury or delicacy of touch. Eager to get to the ball and challenge, he lunges at Venter, who in turn collides with Fassi in mid-air and tips the full-back over.
Referee Mathieu Raynal initially whistles for a penalty, but after viewing the on-screen footage, he at least rules that Thorley inadvertently caused a mid-air collision and awards a scrum to Gloucester when Fassi spilled the catch on touch down.
Is it the right call for us not to penalize Thorley but only scrum to Gloucester?
Let’s look at the law.
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Law
Obstruction is governed by Rule 9 – Foul Play and is fairly brief.
Specifically, Law 9.2 states: An offside player must not intentionally obstruct an opponent or interfere with play.
Law 9.3 states: A player must not intentionally prevent an opponent from tackling or attempting to tackle the ball carrier.
Law 9.4 states that: A player must not intentionally prevent an opponent from playing the ball other than by competing for possession.
Meanwhile, under Law 10 – offside and inside in open play, we have these paragraphs:
Law 10.1 states: A player is offside in open play if that player is in front of the teammate who carries the ball or who last played it. An offside player may not interfere with the game. This includes: c. Preventing the opposition from playing as they wish.
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The problem with Law 9—the quirk that probably saved Venter from being penalized—is the word “intentionally.” Venter does not change direction or lean into contact with Thorley and actively “block” him. While under Rule 10, Venter is not yet offside until Fassi plays the ball.
Currently, players on the receiving team can move towards the ball as it falls (we didn’t find this explicitly in the guidelines or clarifications on the World Rugby website, but it was reported by the game commentators, because we’ll take them at their word, and it’s certainly not the first time what happened and it wasn’t punished so…).
This trio of Sharks players are clearly doing as they are allowed, while Thorley is clearly trying to play the ball, so referee Raynal’s call was correct. But just as clear is the organized wall of three shirts directly in the path of any would-be pursuer. The coordination of the trio was just too clean. As referee Raynal found, Thorley had the right to go after the ball and get over the black wall, but that was what created the dangerous situation.
None of the trio “deliberately” block Thorley, nor can they technically be offside until Fassi touches the ball. But in any other game situation it is a clear obstruction under any of the paragraphs in Rule 9.
It would be great if a new clarification could be added convincing a player on the receiving team to either actively play the drop ball or actively move out of the way of the pursuers. Clashes will certainly still happen, but the kind of coordinated obstruction maneuvering we saw with the Sharks — and we see with many other teams — needs to be outlawed.
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