As I understand it much of leniency around the line speed defence off of the ruck is due to two elements that World Rugby will be discussing prior to the World cup, the first is the increased use of the caterpillar bind which many elite referees are extremely unhappy with as it's making it difficult to decide when to make the "Use it" call, the second is down to the number of scrum halves that are holding hands on a ball in a ruck faking difficulty in extraction to buy time.
Code:
Law 15 Ruck
The purpose of a ruck is to allow players to compete for the ball which is on the ground.
FORMING A RUCK
1. A ruck can take place only in the field of play.
2. A ruck is formed when at least one player from each team are in contact, on their feet and over the ball which is on the ground.
3. Players involved in all stages of the ruck must have their heads and shoulders no lower than their hips. Sanction: Free-kick.
OFFSIDE AT A RUCK
4. Each team has an offside line that runs parallel to the goal line through the hindmost point of any ruck participant. If that point is on or behind the goal line, the offside line for that team is the goal line.
5. At a ruck, the offside line runs through the hindmost point of the hindmost player of either team.
JOINING A RUCK
6. An arriving player must be on their feet and join from behind their offside line.
7. A player may join alongside but not in front of the hindmost player.
8. A player must bind onto a team-mate or an opposition player. The bind must precede or be simultaneous with contact with any other part of the body.
Players must join the ruck or retire behind their offside line immediately.
9. Players who have previously been part of the ruck may rejoin the ruck, provided they do so from an onside position.
Sanction: Penalty.
DURING A RUCK
10. Possession may be won either by rucking or by pushing the opposing team off the ball.
11. Once a ruck has formed, no player may handle the ball unless they were able to get their hands on the ball before the ruck formed and stay on their feet.
12. Players must endeavour to remain on their feet throughout the ruck.
13. All players in a ruck must be caught in or bound to it and not just alongside it.
14. Players may play the ball with their feet, provided they do so in a safe manner.
15. Players on the ground must attempt to move away from the ball and must not play the ball in the ruck or as it emerges.
16. Players must not:
a. Pick the ball up with their legs.
b. Intentionally collapse a ruck or jump on top of it.
c. Intentionally step on another player.
d. Fall over the ball as it is coming out of a ruck.
e. Kick, or attempt to kick, the ball out of a ruck.
Sanction: Penalty.
f. Return the ball into the ruck.
g. Take any action to make opponents believe that the ruck has ended when it has not.
Sanction: Free-kick.
ENDING A RUCK
17. When the ball has been clearly won by a team at the ruck, and is available to be played, the referee calls “use it”, after which the ball must be played away from the ruck within five seconds.
Sanction: Scrum.
18. The ruck ends and play continues when the ball leaves the ruck or when the ball in the ruck is on or over the goal line.
19. The ruck ends when the ball becomes unplayable. If the referee decides that the ball will probably not emerge within a reasonable time, a scrum is awarded.
Quite a few referees at the top end of the game believe that teams are exploiting application of 15-17 and attempting to use 15-19 when convenient. The accepted wisdom is that as soon as the player in the half-back/acting half-back position places their hand on the ball they have made the decision to remove it and as they are protected by convention (not laws
) that they can not be interfered with until the ball is fully removed a grey area is occurring on timings that wily defence coaches are also exploiting.
But lets face it when you read the above law 15, pretty much every ruck in a game of Rugby should end in a penalty, free-kick or scrum so the whole thing is a lottery really.
As to the weekend games.
Yet again plenty of proof that England's new defence has already been worked out as being far to narrow when teams move wide quickly, which plays perfectly into the hands of Scotland next week and I see the Scots finally ending their Twickenham hoodoo.
Wales are being gifted a Grand Slam with teams just not turning up against them, which, yes, says a lot about how they are stifling teams with boredom and "safe" options but it's an appalling advert for NH Rugby. If they can only get themselves "up" for games against a single team in the World they are doomed to a fairly abject World Cup.
Ireland a poor shadow of last year, they peaked far to early and now you can see a permanent body language of frustration written on all their key players, they dominated a very poor France but showed virtually no bite, guile or scoring focus.
Next week, I can't see Wales losing against a fallen Irish side but it will quite possibly bee the dullest game of Rugby ever played with two sides that at the moment only know route one playing British bulldog with each other.
I suspect a Scotland victory due to England's weak wide defence and that being the area of Scotland's most potent attacking potential, add to it the point that Eddie Jones made, this is the one game Scotland care about. It will be a high scoring game though.
In the irrelevant game, I wouldn't be surprised if Italy finally manage to win if they can get some of their injuries back. Connor O'Shea deserves one with the changes he's trying to get through in Italy so they have a far more stable and productive long term foundation. France are the worst Les Bleu team I have ever seen and it's shocking that their League refuse to take any responsibility for the demise of what was once one of World Rugby's greatest side.
