Warm Up Match 5: Maori All Blacks v British & Irish Lions (Rotorua)

[Nubiwan]

Historically the ABs pack has never once strayed offside
#Justice7Richie

Last foot in ruck is offside remember - everyone knows that.....

From the first 30 minutes of the Maori game - and the ones I bothered to check. The leniency towards offside at the ruck is completely inconsistent, which was the point made in the now locked Highlander match thread.

Couple of real beauties in here including last one were the ref appears to be telling the Maori to get even more offside. I put in an offside Lions pic in there, because everyone knows we are always offside at the ruck.

The point of all this is that, while we all know offside is the hindmost foot of the ruck (even us north of the equator), there are multiple examples of it not being called, and for pretty damn good reason. Game would be stopped for penalties every other ruck.

 

[smartcooky]

My apologies, it was Neil Back.
I was having a senior moment.
DoH!
He was awesome for England, tough as nails, always pushing the envelope with the ref, he was a world class sniffer. he made a real difference to the English pack and how much possession they could garner and the likes of him has ne'er been seen since he left the playing side of the game.
Maybe Underhill...

There was no player in world rugby better at playing hide the ball than Neil Back... and I'll bet he has an excellent array of rake scars on his back as evidence.

 

[The Jones Boy]

There was no player in world rugby better at playing hide the ball than Neil Back... and I'll bet he has an excellent array of rake scars on his back as evidence.

Those were the days when, if you were quick enough you could get away with an awful lot.
Not so much these days.

 

[smartcooky]

he point of all this is that, while we all know offside is the hindmost foot of the ruck (even us north of the equator), there are multiple examples of it not being called, and for pretty damn good reason. Game would be stopped for penalties every other ruck.

Not really. This isn't how game management works

The referees I coach/advise use Ask - Tell - Penalise.

At the first occurrence, they will attempt to manage the offside players back by asking/waving them back, and if they do not comply immediately, they will tell the players to "step back now!" Usually, the players will comply. This is their last freebie.

Next time they infringe, skip the "Ask" and Tell them to step back. If they don't respond immediately, advantage/penalise (depending on the state of play). This time, a word about compliance as they retire... "you're going to run into trouble if you keep getting offside at rucks".

The third time they infringe, advantage/penalise for the second time and warn the captain... "that's two penalties for ruck offsides now skipper, your players are limiting my options"

On the fourth infringement, penalise immediately. Don't play advantage unless not doing so would disadvantage the non-infringing side. "OK, that is three - next one goes to the bin".

I find that my referees almost always get compliance after the warning... the threat of cards rarely need to be exercised. As a referee, if you set your stall out early and make it clear you are not going to tolerate offside play, you generally won't have trouble later in the match