Many of you will be aware of a lineout tactic adopted at the recent Junior World Championship whereby the non-ball-winning team chooses NOT to make physical contact with the players of the ball-winning team, once the ball has been thrown-in and won. This means that no maul is created because only the players of one team are gathered around the ball carrier.
The IRB provided direction on how to referee this circumstance.
In order to provide clarity, please instruct all referees to rule as follows:
- If the non-ball-winning team in the line out choose to not engage the line out drive by “leaving the line out as a group”, PENALTY KICK to team in possession.
- If the non-ball-winning team in the line out choose to not engage the line out drive by simply opening up a gap and “creating space” and they remain at the lineout, the following process would be followed:
- the ball-winning team would need to keep the ball with the front player, if they were to drive down-field (therefore play on, general play – non-ball-winning players could either engage to form a maul, or tackle the ball carrier only).
- if they immediately hand it back to a player behind the front player, the referee will tell them to “use it” which they must do immediately.
- if they drive forward and the ball is in possession of a player behind the front player, the referee will award a scrum for “accidental offside” rather than a Penalty Kick for obstruction.
We believe that teams who are adept at mauling will very quickly make use of their options to their advantage and therefore non-ball-winning teams will be taking a massive risk if they choose not to compete and, therefore, create the initial maul.
The message to referees regarding the ball-winning team formation is:
- We need to ensure that the ball is not transferred from the Jumper to the back player before a maul is formed.
- We need to be FAR MORE vigilant on team-in-possession players “joining the maul ahead of the ball carrier and/or the last player on their own side of the maul” – we need to ensure team-in-possession players join from the back (just as we expect the non-possession team to do).
