Re the OP. As far as I'm concerned, provided Red were complying with law prior to the ball going into touch (and they were because they were retiring and not interfering with play) then the event of the ball going into touch puts everyone onside.
This is backed up by a WR video that showed an AB kick where players in front of the ball held their ground until ball went into touch at which time they moved forward to LoT.
I, for one, like Roman numerals
It is a rare situation, in that there were 2 chasers in position before the defence returned - but the average age was over 40 for both teams
Possibly the reason it looks wrong is from a principle point of view - do you not want to reward blue for chasing 50m, tackling to prevent the clearance, and then maintaining continuity with the QTI in the time that red jogs back 40m? That seems like Phil's point about benefiting from being offside. I think there was a clarification recently about not benefiting from being offside when preventing the QTI, wasn't there?
I say they were onside. If not, at what point would they become onside? Say the QTI throws the ball 10m backwards, and the receiving player does not pass the ball. We don't expect red to remain stationary whilst blue move away from them, we would not expect them to have to run PAST blue before they can turn and tackle, ergo they must be onside all the time. It will look weird as they are beyond what would have been theLOT, and in this case closer to blue DB line than the blue receiver, but I don't see any other interpretation than open play and play on.
Having said that, as it 'looks' weird and would probably get a crowd shouting in a big match, I can live with an interpretation that does not strictly exist in law that it's offside. Just not my preferred approach here.
I agree with Dickie. Once ball is in touch you can go/be wherever you like. The laws painstakenly describe offside at the lineout and once it forms....but say zip about offside on the Quick Throw. So there is no offside at QTI.
Any offside BEFORE the ball goes into touch just needs to be managed.
Tell em it's Law 23 and smile
I found this on the World Rugby website. See no. 2. But I don't understand what they are saying should happen?
https://laws.worldrugby.org/?domain=9&guideline=5
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