This is a ruck isn't it? One of the examples used by BBC at half time
Posted Feb 26, 2017, 3:57 PM UTC
914
Hard to tell from a still image, considering the ref told the English players that pulling in Italian players (which might be happening here) didn't constitute the Italians engaging in a ruck.
4
He has his hand on the ruck and then jumps back when the England players try to pull him in, I'm just trying to get a grasp on the rules as it has raised a lot of questions.
4
You mean ITV, right?
4
He's not competing for the ball so it's not a ruck.
2†
Law 16.1 b) How can a ruck form. Players are on their feet. At least one player must be in physical contact with an opponent. The ball must be on the ground. If the ball is off the ground for any reason, the ruck is not formed.
No mention on competition for the ball?
13
He's not competing for the ball. He's just standing there in the still so it's not meeting the definition of a ruck.
-2†
The law says nothing about competing.
8
From the definition:
A ruck is a phase of play where one or more players from each team, who are on their feet, in physical contact, close around the ball on the ground. Open play has ended. Players are rucking when they are in a ruck and using their feet to try to win or keep possession of the ball, without being guilty of foul play.
If they're not trying to win possession of the ball then they're not rucking so it's a tackle and thus open play meaning there's no offside.
-5
Technically yes.
That's an opposition player over the ball. Pocock did that a number of times in super rugby to get around the tactic
2
Yes the ruck situation in this game was clever at first but just turned into a complete shambles with a lot of 'non rucks' actually being rucks but not called rucks by the ref. Another brilliantly bizarre union law which has potential to turn the game into a shambles, along with the 'choke tackle' nonsense which is imo just a tackle which hasn't gone to ground etc.
This a million times over. When I first saw tactic last year in super rugby I was like 'I hope this doesn't catch on'. The second half of the game showed exactly why. People were just standing wherever the fuck they wanted because poite had lost control of the breakdown.