Legality of the ankle tap

[buff]

Was there ever a time that the ankle tap was considered illegal? If so when did the change occur either in law or in practice to allow it? The question came up in our Facebook group.
Thanks

[Camquin]

It is legal, but it is not a tackle as the ball carrier is never held.
However, a trip - with the leg - is illegal.

Also if you are already off your feet, I think you are out of the game until you get to your feet. So you cannot touch the ball carrier.
But I believe you can go to ground while making a tap tackle.

[crossref]

in the old days there was a law that said

"Any player may tackle, hold or push an opponent holding the ball." - which (pretty much) covered the ankle tap .. it comes under push in that you push his foot


Nowadays the equivalent Law is 9.15

Except in a scrum, ruck or maul, a player who is not in possession of the ball must not hold, push, charge or obstruct an opponent not in possession of the ball.

which (if you construe it carefully, untangling the triple negative inside the exception clause) says the same thing, but less clearly

That's the legal basis.

The other basis is just by convention : by convention everyone knows that players are allowed to ankle tap.

[chbg]

It mainly seems to be the Americans who equate an ankle tap to a 'trip', which is prohibited. In UK English a trip is a lower lib on leg action, not an upper limb on leg.

[Marc Wakeham]

The Oxford Dictionary include the following in the definitions:

An act of falling or nearly falling down, because you hit your foot against something"


So a hand can cause the trip. But we can play with the words. The simple fact is that the ankle tap is allowed if it was not someone would have pinged it by now.

Whether is should be allowed or not is a totally different point.

[buff]

Thanks all, but I know its legal. I'm wondering if it was ever not legal.