Something Wrong

[Sqad]

There is something wrong with Rugby Union, whereby an opponent can legally stand offside.
OR...have i misinterpreted the rules?

[Zacs-Master]

You can only be off side in a ruck. There were no Italian players in the ruck, therefore it wasn't a ruck, it was deemed a tackle.

[Sqad]

Thanks Zac.
So one can't be offside after a tackle?

[Zacs-Master]

Correct.

[Sqad]

LOL....so if I am standing offside after a tackle is made and I intercept the pass, I am not deemed to be offside?

[Zacs-Master]

Again, correct (I think!).

[Sqad]

Well, I have played rugby at school, University and club ( lower grades i might add) and i have never heard of that rule.
Intercepts could be a new phenomenon....stand offside and just take the ball.
I think that union better get it's act together over this rule.

[Zacs-Master]

Sqad, you're in good company as the England players hadn't either. They had to ask the ref!

I also played at school (pack and No8, co I could run like the wind) and I'd not heard of it either.

[Sqad]

LOL......thanks Zac.
I was a jinking stand of half.....couldn't tackle, couldn't kick...but i could "jink.".........LOL

[Zacs-Master]

I always said you were a Jinker. ;-)

[Sqad]

I think that the word you are looking for is .."***."

[jno]

it's well known that there are no rules in rugby. You just do what the ref tells you. If he penalises you, stop doing it.

Old-timers still talk about the days when the ball had to go into the scrum straight, but try to tell that to the kids of today and they'll laugh at you....

[Sqad]

It rhymes with ..flanker.

[Zacs-Master]

I wouldn't be so disrespectful to one of Britain's emeritus surgeons.

[Sqad]

Why not....everybody else is.....;-)....

[Zacs-Master]

Haaaa! You're right you silly old ***. ;-)

[gl556tr]

'***' = cad.

[Palustris]

Mind it does leave big holes in the defence as the
player standing in an 'offside' sort of position is a good few yards behind any attacker who makes a break.
League is better in that once the Referee shouts 'Held' defenders have to get onside.

[fbg40]

Bit late in giving my 'haporth, but if there is no offside rule then the game would be a shambles !! In my humble opinion of course !
FBG40

[goodgoalie]

The problem would be sorted if the rule was simply that anyone in front of the ball is offside, and therefore out of the game. And I am getting increasingly fed up with hearing what has become a continuous stream of instructions to the players from the referee: hands away 4, stay onside 6, roll away 7 etc etc, and a fairly new one seems to be the shout of "tackle only"(this happened a lot in the game in question, as the Italians would not form a ruck). Is it just that the refs are now miked up, or were they calling all this stuff out back in the golden days of Bill McLaren? Also, how were scrums set back then, without "crouch, bind, set"? With the huge amount of statistics available during and after the match, including GPS info, the one thing I'd like to know is what percentage of the time played is the ball actually in play? Can't be more than 30%, I'd say. High time the RFU got its house in order.

[joggerjayne]

Okay, I don't know much about Rugby rules, but ...

Just thinking here ...

If a player is in an offside sort of position, he's effectively out of the game.

(1) if the other side have the ball, the direction of play will be moving away from him.

(2) if his own side have the ball, doesn't he then become officially "Offside" until his own player with the ball goes past him and puts him onside?

(3) he can't make a tackle or anything, because he's not near the ball.

Ignore me if this is all poop. I was reading about it in my newspaper.