Come on Ireland!

[Brandenburger Toro]

Come on Ireland!

There was no reason to think he couldn't ground it. But he didn't have to ground it, he had to attempt to ground it. There was no way McCaw was getting to the ball first, so he didn't prevent a try.

Why didn't he try and ground it? He's done the chucking thing a couple of times already this season, and got away with it - it's basically being a smartarse.

[Ray de Galles]

Come on Ireland!

Toro Hussein Toro wrote:

It's always been the rule. The card was right - but I don't think the penalty try was. Since Bowe got to the ball first, I don't see how the New Zealander (McCaw) could have been expected to ground it, had Bowe tried to touch it down.

Surely if Bowe could have touched it down, he would have?As he didn't, his only option was an illegal move which had he not made McCaw would have scored the try.

An illegal move that close to the line deliberately aimed at preventing a try is normally punished with a penalty try isn't it?

[Ray de Galles]

Come on Ireland!

ursus arctos wrote:

Have you ever played a full international in yellow before?

That just looked wrong.

It wasn't yellow you fool! It was (Brains SA) gold! It's another crass adoption of the St David's Cross marketing idea.

The white socks made it even worse.

[Brandenburger Toro]

Come on Ireland!

It's always been the rule. The card was right - but I don't think the penalty try was. Since Bowe got to the ball first, I don't see how the New Zealander (McCaw) could have been expected to ground it, had Bowe tried to touch it down.

Even if it had gone out off his hand, that would have been fine. The rule is against deliberately playing it out, as Wyatt says.

Christ on a bike, that was an awful, awful match. I cannot recall a worse game.

[anton pulisov]

Come on Ireland!

Fiar enough. But after 15 years watching the sport and in 8 months of playing it, I only came across this rule for the first time yesterday. It's a weird one.

[Wyatt Earp]

Come on Ireland!

There's a fairly general consistency in RU too: you can't handle the ball into touch, whether you prevent a try or not.

[anton pulisov]

Come on Ireland!

Harri Saer wrote:

Bryantop wrote:

They just make up these rules in rugby as they go along, don't they.

Apparently you can't punch the ball out of play near the try line, or something.

edit: It's like rule in football banning goal saving slide tackles.

Well, it's closer to the rule in football that you can't punch the ball off the goal line really.

Ah yes, but you can't use your hand in football, so there's a general consistency there.

It's like saying that you can slide tackle the ball, but if the ball ends up going over the sideline, then you can't.

[Wyatt Earp]

Come on Ireland!

You have to pretend to think you've seen a teammate outside you. Shouting "Here you go, Barry, take it!" can help.

[Wyatt Earp]

Come on Ireland!

Yeah, you can't deliberately handle the ball into touch. I haven't played RU for getting on for a quarter of a century, and we certainly couldn't deliberately handle the ball into touch. I mean, be fair.

[Janik]

Come on Ireland!

Knocking the ball out of play to stop somebody scoring is a yellow card.

Punching somebody is also a yellow card.

I'm fairly sure yellow cards were brought into Union specifically to stop 'professional' offences, like killing the ball, or in todays example deliberately giving away a penalty (knocking the ball out of play with your hands) in order to stop a try being scored.

What became a problem was that refs, possibly under instruction, have started to apply sin-bins to non-technical offences, like throwing a punch. The only card a ref should issue for punching is a red one. If he feels the incident doesn't warrant a red card, then, old school, no card at all.

They just make up these rules in rugby as they go along, don't they.

Apparently you can't punch the ball out of play near the try line, or something.

Intentionally putting the ball into touch with your hands (anywhere, near the tryline doesn't matter) being a penalty offence is hardly a new rule. It was in force when I was playing at school 15 years ago. Seeing as the New Zealander would almost certainly have scored without that intervention, then the penalty try award was inevitable.

[ursus arctos]

Come on Ireland!

Have you ever played a full international in yellow before?

That just looked wrong.

[Ray de Galles]

Come on Ireland!

Bryantop wrote:

They just make up these rules in rugby as they go along, don't they.

Apparently you can't punch the ball out of play near the try line, or something.

edit: It's like rule in football banning goal saving slide tackles.

Well, it's closer to the rule in football that you can't punch the ball off the goal line really.

I actually watched the last ten minutes of Eng v NZ in the RL this morning because my little boy wanted to watch any sport (he thinks all ball games are football at the moment) and, though it was exciting due to what was on the line, by fuck is that a one dimensional game.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

Come on Ireland!

for who exactly?

I looked up to see an irish player stamping a couple of times on a new zealand player right in front of the referee. It was only when one of the other new zealand players tried to stop him that that the ref got involved. Croke Park was kind of quiet wasn't it.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Come on Ireland!

Rugby Union's a nonsense, Lewis Carroll game at so many levels it's unbelievable (but we've done this before).

Australia were 18-10 up on England at one point today (and their goal kicker had beaten some international record or something) even though they hadn't been within 40 metres of the English "try line" .

It'd be like in football, Gary Neville would be the most celebrated player of all time for taking 6 free-kicks in the first half.

Nonsense sport. It really is. But lots of fun.

[anton pulisov]

Come on Ireland!

Wasn't there some other odd rule about forward passes? What happened to that?

[anton pulisov]

Come on Ireland!

Knocking the ball out of play to stop somebody scoring is a yellow card.

Punching somebody is also a yellow card.

Hmmm.

[anton pulisov]

Come on Ireland!

They just make up these rules in rugby as they go along, don't they.

Apparently you can't punch the ball out of play near the try line, or something.

edit: It's like rule in football banning goal saving slide tackles, because you're blatantly stopping the forward from scoring. Duh.

Rugby is weird.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

I really want Ireland to win anyway, but in particular for the smug cunt in my local who's actually an England fan and backed against his own country today (inasmuch as he had a spread bet on that, between them, England, Scotland and Ireland would lose by a total of more than 34 points). He was, to be fair, backing Scotland and Ireland to both lose by a hatful and England to win, but when he realised Scotland were only going to go down by 4 or 5 points, he started to cheer for Australia to keep their points advantage. The utter wanker.

So he's (at ten pound a point) still £160 down. Come on Ireland, make him suffer.