Touch Judges Call

[Burgs]

Hey Ecky, while you are online.
On the weekend did you see the call against Huxley where he deliberately stood outside the field of play and took the ball (from a kick) even though it hadn't crossed the line.
He was ruled to have taken it out and so handed possession to the Welsh deep in our defence.
It was a deliberate move so he obviously thought he was in the right.
The TJ was right there so he thought he was correct too.
Who got it wrong?
(Was going to say "Who got it right" but that was obviously the TJ )

[chook]

My 2 cents.. I thought that if a player is standing outside the touch line and catches the ball on the full (leaning in to the field of play) the ball is deemed to be out on the full ( when, if left alone, it would have bounced in field first). Perhaps Huxley got confused with that rule.

[frontrow]

I am pretty confused about the whole issue as i agree with chook, if he is outside the field of play and marks it it should be deemed out on the full...
That said, wasn't the ball dribbling to the sideline, therefore he was out so the ball was taken into touch...
Ecky, what is the ruling...

[gustafsl]

My 2 cents.. I thought that if a player is standing outside the touch line and catches the ball on the full (leaning in to the field of play) the ball is deemed to be out on the full ( when, if left alone, it would have bounced in field first). Perhaps Huxley got confused with that rule.

Didn't this happen in one of the Force games this year? It was off a Force re-start and the receiver stood outside the touch line and caught the ball so it was deemed out on the full and was a scrum at centre.

I think you're probably right that Huxley just got caught up in the moment and was a bit confused. But it obviously was the right call as what he did was no different then had he picked up the ball in bounds and ran out.

[JamesBrown]

As long as the ball has the momentum and is travelling towards the touch line or the try line, it is considered out or in goal off the team that has kicked the ball ! I believe both the touchy and huxley are right By the looks of the ball rolling along the ground it would of had a 50 50 chance of rolling out or staying in play

[hopep]

He was ruled to have taken it out and so handed possession to the Welsh deep in our defence.
The TJ was right there so he thought he was correct too.
)

The TJ was quite right. Huxley had one foot out of play when he went to pick up the ball. Until then the ball was 'in-play', he was out of play and as soon as he touched the ball it became a Wales put in.

Very basic error - but I've mentioned some of Connnoly's/Selectors favourites making junior level errors before.

[JediKnight]

I couldn't believe the ineptitude of someone wearing a Wallabies jersey when I saw that piece of play....

The ball was in play (kicked down field & bobbling around) and Huxley picked it up whilst his foot was OVER (not just touching) the sideling. Therefore it was a Welsh lineout. It is the same as if he had picked the ball up in play and carried it over.

Basically it was worse than a schoolboy error.

[Burgs]

I can see merit in both sides of the argument and the obvious is that Huxley was wrong but I'll reserve judgement on him until one of our resident Ref's puts his "name" on the line
It was interesting that the entire commentary panel thought Huxley was actually correct...

[hopep]

Just goes to show how much comentators know about the laws.

BTW - I was watching the game with 2 current refs who both agreed with me the minute he did it.

[JediKnight]

How could it be anything but Welsh ball? He was touching ball whilst his feet were in touch. Simple as that.

[chook]

Hate to disagree with you Burgs (and hopep )but the commentary team thought Huxley had a brain explosion. Bray called it 'a rush of blood' in the heat of a test match. Crowley was kinda laughing at Huxley.
Pretty basic error by Huxley, he took a few good high balls so I suppose that outweighs that error to some extent

[Burgs]

Fox commentary team Chook.
C7 wouldn't interperet anything for themselves

[chook]

Who are the commentary people on Fox for union? I'm thinking Kearns, Greg Clark and Greg whatsisname
Gordon Bray sounded like he was dying from pneumonia.

[The InnFORCEr]

and Rod Kafer (aka Mrs Marsh...ohh it does get in)

[Ecky]

Well excuse me for not being online this arvo - I was online during me lunch break but then work got in the way a bit - and only finding this one now.

OK, let's get technical: Law 19 - Touch and Line-Out, Definitions
"A player in touch may kick or knock the ball, but not hold it, provided it has not crossed the plane of the touch line. The plane of the touch line is the vertical space rising immediately above the touch line"

So, as our man picked the thing up while it was in the field of play, he held it. Thus he took it into touch.

There are some scenarios where he could have been standing in touch and, say caught the thing, and it would have been a Wallabies throw in. This wasn't one of them. I think it was a case of thinking too much about it - he had far too much time to think. Much like the dropping the ball by Gerrard (I think?) in his 22 which led to the scrum which led to the drop goal to put Wales back in front.

Trusting this clarifies. Out of interest, I believe Gordon Bray is a Level 2 qualified ref. Dunno if he still maintains this but he certainly was a few years back.