The Advantage Laws

[Tonkar]

This is one area i am finding difficult to understand with different Refs and teams
As demonstrated in last nights game the Force were disadvantaged more than having an advantage so all can see what I am on about I have added the rullings on the rules of advantage

The following was taken from IRB site



8.1 ADVANTAGE IN PRACTICE
(a) The referee is sole judge of whether or not a team has gained an advantage. The referee
has wide discretion when making decisions.
(b) Advantage can be either territorial or tactical.
(c) Territorial advantage means a gain in ground.
(d) Tactical advantage means freedom for the non-offending team to play the ball as they wish.

[pieter blackie]

with minor infringements in my opinion advantage should be over only when you have actually gone forward over the advantage line and still have possession of the ball

With penalty advantage I see it as advantage over if you have at least gained 10 meters and are still in possession of the ball.

Some referees does it this way and others does it differently they should have something set in stone for this

The one that is also left to the discretion of the referee is that if you give away a penalty within 5 meters of your own goal line and it was a professional foul then it should be yellow and also should be a penalty try

[Burgs]

Apart from a few variables in regard to Prof Foul=YC=Penalty Try,the rest is how I see it too PB.

[pieter blackie]

I know it is a bit harsh but I am just sick and tired of seeing how a team will cheat and steal if they know they have more than 3 points lead and the end is near

[Burgs]

Oh, I can certainly sympathise, what I'm saying is that not all pro fouls/penalties are the direct reason for not scoring a try, ie in a ruck etc compared to a knockdown pass etc.
I believe the interpretation has been too tough (ie bar too high for a PT) and that there are many instances in a S14 Round that could justify a PT which, over time, would clean up the errors as it does in other areas.

[.X.]

The only problem I have with the idea of Professional Foul = Yellow Card = Penalty Try is this.

Is that how you want to see a game won or lost - with a contentious referee's call.

Or by the players playing out the 80 minutes.

[Burgs]

Trouble is it happens already Ex, the contentious calls that is.

[palitu]

yeah, was tehre three times that we had a knock on advantage, and as soon as the ball is passed out of the (offedning) ruck, advantage over??? how can the ref tell whether we have gained any advantage at all? other than recieving the ball.

it's a fricken joke, and would be better to just say to the ref, we want the scrum now...

[Sheikh]

I prefer not to see yellow cards except for repeated infringements. But if the refs were more likely to award penalty tries it would stop a lot of the deliberate infringements near the try line. However, I can also see that refs would still be called for contentious penalty try decisions when one ref awards a try while another in a different match awards only a penalty.

That's one of the problems of having all matches televised and discussed at length on sites like this one!

[Gean]

it's a fricken joke, and would be better to just say to the ref, we want the scrum now...

or just kick the ball anywhere the moment the ref says advantage.......you either get the scrum or a lineout.......atleast you dont get bugger all !

[Burgs]

I guess that is why you often see the Scrumhalf do a deliberate knock on at the base of a Ruck.

[Ecky]

So I held off for a while..
The important thing to remember here is "(a) The referee is sole judge of whether or not a team has gained an advantage. The referee has wide discretion when making decisions.

In general, I consider what the non-infringing captain would want. True, if it's a scrum sanction, just see if they can pass it to gain time/space. If not, bring it back, if so, advantage over, play on.

If it's a penalty kick sanction then I tend to let them have a go for a bit longer. It's not uncommon for there to be several passes - maybe 5 or 6 or more - for the team to be held on the gain line or drop the pill or something, so it comes back for the PK.

---------- Post added at 20:36 ---------- Previous post was at 20:32 ----------

A cynical (or clever) scrum half will drop the ball or knock on or something if they know not a lot will develop.

Remember also that the ELVs from last season had a free kick as the sanction for a lot of infringements - you can't score from a FK, so the teams wanted the ball back at the mark for a quick tap asap. You'll not see as much this season now that we're back to PKs

[Burgs]

Ecky, would it be fair to say that with a scrum sanction advantage would be deemed to be over when play equaling a clean scrum win has accrued?
Basically it is there to replace having to stop for the scrum with a small dose of quick ball thrown in to sweeten the deal.

[Ecky]

That's very fair of you to say so Burgs. You've pretty much got it.

Now, how do we get you on the park with a whistle?

[Darren]

with a Segway?