I enjoyed the heck of the Rugby Seven tournament this past weekend. What a fun and fast game. I’ve watched rugby before too, but the speed and the more open field makes Rugby Sevens particularly exciting. (Hope I’m not offending any purists out there.)
My biggest question has to do with touching the ball down in the try zone to score. I understand that you want to touch near the middle of the field for an easier conversion kick. But what if you don’t touch down? What if you’re tackled or have the ball knocked away while you’re running in the try zone?
Rugby Ref chiming in here. There are two separate questions here, assuming that the player has already crossed the goal line:
If the player is tackled and fails to ground the ball, it’s no score but the team that failed to score get the put in at a scrummage 5 metres from the goal line, opposite the place where the player failed to ground the ball. In other words, there is still a strong attacking opportunity.
If the player drops or otherwise has the ball knocked out whilst in the in goal area, the likely result will be no score and a 22m drop out (sort of like a punt after the safety in a game of US Football) by the defending team, so less of an attacking opportunity. I say likely result, it might depend on what happens - if the ball goes dead then it will be a 22m drop out. If the defending team get to the ball, they can either ground it, which will also give them a 22m drop out - but they could also pick it up and try and run it out - the ref will play advantage to see whether they can achieve a better result than a 22m drop out.
I’m not sure about your first answer Cumbrian. It seems to me that’s what happens if the attacker is held up, but not if they lose the ball.
If the attacker knocks the ball on or loses it forward in goal surely the advantage law applies and if the defence recover the ball they can force the ball for a drop out or even elect to run it out (possibly a desirable move in sevens). If there is no advantage to the defending side then the result is a five metre scrum with the defence to feed.
If the attacker loses the ball backwards, then its still general play until someone forces the ball (a try or drop out) the ball goes dead (drop out) or someone knocks on (5 metre scrum, to be fed by the non-infringing side).
I’m only a former player though (although my Dad reffed more than 500 club games).
As for Sevens in general, I’m a semi-purist who enjoys Sevens for it’s own sake (and am happy it’s going to be in the next Olympics), but still much prefer the full strength version.
and read it as what happens when a) the guy gets tackled and b) what happens when he knocks it on? Rather than what happens when a guy gets tackled and the ball gets knocked away, so I saw two separate things.
a) is uninteresting if he gets the ball to deck - as it is a try - so I focused on what would happen if he didn’t get the ball to ground. I’m definitely right on that one.
You inspired me to get the law book out for the other one - turns out you’re right. A knock on in goal, even if it goes into touch in goal or over the dead ball line, is a 5m scrum, defending side put in, opposite the place of the touchdown/forceout (or 5m in from the touchline if over touch in goal). I definitely did not know this - and would have applied what I thought was common sense and given a 22m drop out - on the grounds that it is more advantageous to get the ball as far away from your own goal line as possible, than have a contested ball on your own 5m line (especially in 7s where the 3 on 3 scrum is much more of a lottery). In 7s, I would likely play a long advantage as a result and hope that the defending team can pick it up and break out - it still doesn’t seem intuitively fair to me to give a scrum, but what do I know (evidently not much!)?
Obviously, if the ball goes backwards, it is play on. I didn’t cover that - good catch.
Agreed - you do often see players trying to get nearer the posts when they have an almost-clear run-in, or if they are already over the goal-line but out wide - but always in such a way that the try is never in doubt. After, risking 5 points in order to gain a better shot at a possible 2 is not a good strategy. For the same reason, it’s still important for the defending side to track back and cover the posts even if they are unable to prevent the scoring of a try.
One could argue that in sevens it is slightly more important to attempt to gain a more central position for the conversion, because in sevens conversions are taken as drop kicks rather than from a kicking tee - and the former is significantly more difficult than the latter, I believe.
Okay, one more variation. Tackled out the side (not over the dead ball line) in goal without grounding the ball. This actually happened to one of my teams back in the '90s. I believe we were given a 22 drop.
I would assume the correct call today would follow the guidelines for crossing the dead ball line, i.e. scrum down, defending side put in, five meters from goal, five meters from sideline. Correct?
I agree with your first paragragh Mr Greenjeans. I watched Rugby sevens last year on tv. I think they were playing in Vegas? Even as someone with no connection to any team, or any real understanding of the rules it was a ton of fun to watch.
If that’s what the law is on the dead ball line then yes. For whatever reason I’m having trouble* finding a cite on this very simple question, but the dead-ball line and touch-in-goal are functionally equivalent.
*(A BBC website talks about the defending side grounding the ball after it has crossed the dead-ball line, which is a brainfart of some magnitude.:smack: )
