Legal or not ?

[BazzaS]

If a player cannot be tackled when his feet are off the ground and if a player cannot be tackled when he doesn't have the ball, then how about this scenario:-
Player catches ball by jumping in the air, his fellow players catch him and hold him off the ground, the group then walks down the pitch and dumps the player with the ball over the try line.
It's possible but is it legal or am I missing something ?

 

[Ddanno]

Alright Rassie, take it easy

 

[Ddanno]

Probably fall foul of the obstruction laws

 

[Cruz_del_Sur]

A few points. Short answer: it is illegal.

It is generally accepted that when you hold up a player you have to do so while staying roughly on the same spot (think about a player being lifted to catch a kick off). You can also think that in line outs you need the player to come back down before they start pushing.

So the obvious question becomes: what laws would prevent you from doing this. Here is where it gets trickier and the ref has options.

The most obvious one is obstruction. To lift a player like that and carry him around the pitch you would need some sort of fence/moat around him. That would prevent opponents from reaching him (cleanly).
Pretty sure there are some ruck/maul laws that would cover this, too, but even if all that fails the ref still has the loved/hated 9.27 (player must not do anything against the spirit of good sportsmanship). Which in layman terms basically gives the ref the right to do whatever the **** he wants to. Excuse my language.

 

[Saintjay]

Spirit of the game is rugbys version of my old fellas "Because I said so".

 

[Scotty]

If a player cannot be tackled when his feet are off the ground and if a player cannot be tackled when he doesn't have the ball, then how about this scenario:-
Player catches ball by jumping in the air, his fellow players catch him and hold him off the ground, the group then walks down the pitch and dumps the player with the ball over the try line.
It's possible but is it legal or am I missing something ?

Not legal but I like it, lift catch and run. Screw fair play haha. Next we will be lifting players to catch the ball and launching them forward so they can't be touched till they land

 

[Reiser99]

I agree with above, but I wonder if a team could get away with it for a metre or 2 and disrupt the opponents defensive line. Having said that, it wouldn't be a maul, so I guess there would be no offside line and you could just be surrounded.

I also imagine any team genuinely considering it would sound it out with the ref first. That's what Japan did against England when they didn't compete at the ruck and so weren't offside.

 

[Ddanno]

That was Italy my dude. Haskell's hilariously befuddled face on ref cam is burned into my memory forever.

 

[duncanb]

9.26
Any player who is lifted in open play must be returned to the ground as soon as the ball is won.
So in layman's terms straight after a clean catch.
Simples.