Tackling when feet are off the ground

[Wally]

I was watching the Argentina South Africa game where the referee awarded a penalty for an Argentinian player tackling a South African whilst his feet were off the ground. On the face of it that would be a penalty, however it’s my opinion he was not in the air to receive the ball from a pass or kick. I believe he jumped into the tackle causing his feet to be off the ground. Like one off the commentators I thought if anything the penalty should have gone the other way. If you believe the referee was right what are the chances of seeing more players jumping into tackles to receive penalty decisions.

[Wally]

Subsequent to original post.
The commentators asked the same question I did when the same South African player tried the same move again. This time play went on and there was a comment about hurdling but no action by the French referee.

[crossref]

Anyone find a video clip of it ?

In general terms you are probably right

There is a law against tackling people in the air

. A player must not tackle, charge, pull, push or grasp an opponent whose feet are off the ground

But there is no specific law against jumping ..only 9.11 , general prohibition of doing anything reckless or dangerous... Which it may or may not have been

[Cross]

That happened twice during the ArgvRSA game. The first one involved Eben Etzebeth and imo he did jump to get the ball, but landed on his arms, and only a penalty was awarded. There was a second one (cant recall who was the jumper) and the BC just jumped a tackle, poite said play on.

[Donk93953]

So they start coaching jump/hurdle at all times when carrying the ball? Should make for an interesting match...

[crossref]

So they start coaching jump/hurdle at all times when carrying the ball? Should make for an interesting match...

I guess if that happened they would tweak the Law

[ChuckieB]

Clearly jumping into/ over the tackle area to leave the tackler clutching at thin air IMO. Two instances where I thought Garces was both inconsistent, and wrong.

And hardly consistent with prospective law changes changes to bring tackles lower

[Zebra1922]

I don't like this jumping into or over a tackle, however there is no specific law against it. We would have to fall back on the dangerous play laws as a catch all. I'd be prepared to do that but I'd rather there was a specific law to ban this.

[Rich_NL]

Similar happened in the last Lions series. It's a tough call.

[beckett50]

In general terms you are probably right

There is a law against tackling people in the air

. A player must not tackle, charge, pull, push or grasp an opponent whose feet are off the ground

But there is no specific law against jumping ..only 9.11 , general prohibition of doing anything reckless or dangerous... Which it may or may not have been

We debated this at length a few years back and it centred around the fact that a human that is running is in the air a great deal of the time. The point was made by many that the Law makers, in using a simple terminology, have potentially made every tackle on a running player illegal.

Without a clip of the specific question raised by the OP it is tough to answer the question.