Drop out - Dead in goal - well I never!

[Lee Lifeson-Peart]

Currie Cup Blue Bulls vs Sharks at Loftus Versfeld (or whatever stupid name it's got now) last week or so.

Sharks miss PK and it's touched down. Blue #10 take 22 DO and kicsk long down field. Ludik the sharks FB sees it's rolling towards DBL and lies down with his feet over line and grabs (touches down the) ball before it comes to rest.

Mark "Control the Contollables" Lawrence offers 22 DO or scrum back on blues 22 to Sharks.

Sharks score from ensuing scrum!!!

I've never seen that before on telly (although I have punted as far in the wind at BP Chemicals at Hull - as glamourous a fixture as it sounds ).

It (the Bulls DO) went miles (well 80+ metres) although Meyer Bosman (Sharks long range kicker - Freddie M does the easy stuff ) had landed 3 50m+ penalties before that.

I didn't appreciate what a difference the altitude makes.

[Dixie]

I bet he looked stupid lying down and doing all that nonsense to get a foot over the DBL. Why didn't he just ground the ball once it had crossed the goal line?

[Simon Thomas]

I didn't appreciate what a difference the altitude makes.

LLP - I played out in Joburg for 6 months in 1975 and it was amazing how far the ball travelled in the thinner air (extra 10m-15m at least), dry weather so not waterlogged leather, plus the ball rollied further on the rock hard pitches.

Also even though I was very fit after athletics trainoing and a season of decent rugby here, for the first few weeks I was short of breath a lot in training and matches.

[Robert Burns]

I bet he looked stupid lying down and doing all that nonsense to get a foot over the DBL. Why didn't he just ground the ball once it had crossed the goal line?

That wouldn't have given the scrum back option.

[Taff]

.... Sharks miss PK and it's touched down. Blue #10 take 22 DO and kicsk long down field. Ludik the sharks FB sees it's rolling towards DBL and lies down with his feet over line and grabs (touches down the) ball before it comes to rest.

This is a favourite test question at our monthly meetings, but when you say "grabs" do you mean he picked it up or just touched it down while it was still moving? IIRC the scrum-back option only applies if he picks up a moving ball with a foot over the DBL / TIG.

10/10 for thinking.

[Adam]

This is a favourite test question at our monthly meetings, but when you say "grabs" do you mean he picked it up or just touched it down while it was still moving? IIRC the scrum-back option only applies if he picks up a moving ball with a foot off the FOP.

10/10 for thinking.

Check law 13.

[Lee Lifeson-Peart]

It was a mixture of grab/touch down as the ball was running out of legs (you know what I mean). He certainly didn't pick it up.

Please don't turn this into "son of indirectly into touch!!!!"

[Adam]

13.15 DROP-OUT GOES INTO THE OPPONENTS’ IN-GOAL

(a) If the ball is kicked into the opponents’ in-goal without having touched or been touched by a player, the opposing team has three choices:

To ground the ball, or
To make it dead, or
To play on.

(b) If the opposing team grounds the ball, or makes it dead, or if the ball becomes dead by going into touch-in-goal or on or over the dead ball line, they have two choices:

To have a scrum formed at the centre of the 22-metre line from where the kick was taken and they throw in the ball, or
To have the other team drop-out again.

(c) If they opt to ground the ball or make it dead, they must do so without delay. Any other action with the ball by a defending player means the player has elected to play on.

[Lee Lifeson-Peart]

Check law 13.

Ahhhhhhh! so he only had to ground the ball and it'd still be a scrum back!! So Dixie was right he didn't need to "perform" as he did. I wonder if I misheard ML and he was saying the option was a 22DO to blues (ie take it again).

Anyway now I'll know if it ever happens to me.

[Taff]

... IIRC the scrum-back option only applies if he picks up a moving ball with a foot off the FOP.

Check law 13.

Bugger. A stupid schoolboy mistake.

It would make a good test question though.