Did Richie Cheat (again) to score the last try?

Much has been made of All Black captain Richie McCaw’s match-winning try against the Springboks in their Castle Lager Rugby Championship match on Saturday, but the real question was whether or not it was a legal move?

McCaw scored in the 74th minute to give the All Blacks a lead they didn’t let go of, by flummoxing the Springbok defence at the lineout on the Bok line and scoring almost untouched.

But replays of the try show that it should have been referred and possibly even disallowed as McCaw was offside on two counts.

Not the commentators, not the assistant referees nor referee Jerome Garces picked it up live and never referred it to the television match official with the try eventually leading to New Zealand’s win in the epic game.

Watch the try again though and keep in mind what the laws say, and it becomes clear that it should never have been given and referee Garces made a mistake.

Firstly when the lineout is formed, McCaw stands in the halfback – or receiver – position and therefore is not part of the lineout.

According to World Rugby law 19.8.i - (i) Where the receiver must stand. If a team uses a receiver, then that player, must be positioned at least 2m back from teammates in the lineout, and between the 5m and 15m lines, until the lineout begins. Once the lineout has commenced, the receiver may move into the lineout and may perform all actions available to players in the lineout and is liable to related sanctions.

McCaw is within the two metre rule and while referees don’t always police this fairly, as the receiver/halfback teams do not position their lineout defence for a halfback entering the lineout as it is illegal.

Then there are two more aspects which makes the try illegal – the first that McCaw moves before the ball is thrown in, which places him in an offside position.

Read with law 19.9 (a) – which says “The lineout begins when the ball leaves the hands of the player throwing it in”, it is clear that McCaw has moved before the ball has left the hooker’s hands, and since he is not 2 metres back, has all the advantage from an illegal position.

But to take it further, law 19.10 (f) says “A player must not jump or be lifted or supported before the ball has left the hands of the player throwing in.”

If you watch the video, you can see how Kieran Read is lifted before the ball leaves the hooker’s hands, taking the Springbok attention away from McCaw.

Of course, the All Black captain went through a gap and was missed by the player the Boks had as their receiver – Adriaan Strauss – and the try was given, giving New Zealand the lead in a crucial stage of the game with six minutes to go.

But while it was planned and is a blatant offside, the referee allowed the try to stand, and didn’t query it even though captain Schalk Burger asked for it to be queried.

Of course the Boks will kick themselves for the chances they never took, including Vincent Koch knocking on with an open goalline, Lood de Jager’s “try” that wasn’t given by the TMO and a wild pass by Willie le Roux with an open Cornal Hendricks on his outside, proving again that to beat the best team in the world you need to take the chances when they come your way.

The Boks will be upset that they lost a game they came close to winning on Saturday, but they cannot be blamed for McCaw’s try, which shouldn’t have been allowed in the first place.

 ...as stated previously the Samoans pulled this move off against SA a couple of years back...talk about slow learners...watch it here

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11488188

Jonathan Kaplan's general and specific comments on McCaw's try.

 I went up to Zimbabwe to participate in Peterhouse’s 60th anniversary celebrations and referee their match against Falcon. Friday night was a wonderful occasion with Gary Teichmann the guest speaker and comedian Nik Rabinowitz providing the laughs for the better part of an hour.

It’s amazing to see how a strong sense of community can achieve such great results with such few resources. With all the parents lending a helping hand, ex-pupils coming to watch and those with a little extra cash pitching in, they created a day to remember! The highlight of the weekend was when one of the spectators came to me, thanked me for coming up and for my contribution, and then claimed that this was the best schoolboy game he had had the pleasure of watching. It’s irrelevant whether it’s true or not… it really makes the trip worthwhile when there is such gratitude! For the record, Peterhouse won 37-33 in a 10-try thriller.

With the main game out the way, it was time to watch the much anticipated test match between the Boks and the All Blacks. To say I was disappointed last weekend is an understatement. We have some good players who CAN play, but it seems that each week we are clutching for those dumb, numbing positives that we are sold to offset the pain of each defeat. This week was no different.

As you may well have guessed, I’m not in the camp of those sheep who are happy to accept the trivial pattern of cliched excuses that are being churned out ad infinitum. Before isolation, we had the proudest record of any rugby team in the world, but as with our economic status, and our bumbling politicians, we have become accustomed to and accepting of vestiges of mediocrity! We have the culture and the passion to be the best. We have some of the best players in the world. Yet we can’t seem to put it together to beat the best team in the world. We used to know how to do it. Every loss incurred, adds to the growing body of evidence that we are becoming also-rans… and I don’t accept it! We are not smart enough and we are not doing everything possible to win .

Some points from the weekend…

Let’s give some credit where it is due. The team played well in parts to dominate many areas of the contest. The scrum did well, better than well! They can be very proud of the work they have done on the practice field. They look strong. Our pattern of play, while predictable in parts, did put the All Blacks under pressure, and I thought our ball protection was good. Defensively, we were very sound, but helped by a French referee eager to reward those in the dominant tackle position, who had survived the clean out, but who were sometimes not anchored on the ball but rather the carrier.

Francois Louw was excellent again, Burger’s work rate was exceptional and Heinrich Brussouw… Well, I’m going to say it at the risk of sounding like a stuck record, what were they thinking by not choosing him for the last four years !?!? What a waste. Lood de Jager has stood up really well, Bismarck was excellent in lineout defence and the steal, and I thought our pack was excellent.

I think we have excellent centres, not sure how De Villiers is going to get back in on merit, and Pollard is doing all the right things to be classed as a special player.

So where did it go wrong?

For a start consider this… We take the ball through numerous phases just before halftime and Willie le Roux throws a speculative pass into touch. Patience. Game management. Management of the clock??? There is a minute or so to go until halftime. When will we learn from previous encounters that we need to concentrate to protect our lead. Going into the shed having played well and having a nice lead would have been handy. The All Blacks kick a speculative box kick that is easily taken by Cornel Hendriks, who only has to hold on to possession (we would have got the scrum), but he doesn’t. They win possession – really not good enough at this level – and we can’t even shepherd them towards the touchline, or even concede a penalty. No. They score a try from 85 meters out. That ladies and gentlemen is the ball game. It’s not like they were 5m from our try line with options both sides of the park… With tears in my eyes, I ask, how can this be allowed to happen? Dumb or naive, it simply cannot be allowed to happen if we want to be the best team in the world.

We’re up by 3, we get a scrum penalty. We don’t take the points on offer. We have numerical superiority and we are scrumming the best team in the world. Why would you pick the ball up at the base of the scrum when you have go forward and they have just conceded a penalty? There are no extra points for pretty tries. They are under the pump. We are playing at home. We have the ascendency. Who called that play?

We lacked leadership when we lost Koch through injury. The referee may well have assumed that both tightheads were injured, but WE should have taken the bull by the horns and insisted that Nyakane is well qualified to play in that role. He has, after all, played international rugby in that position. The referee would never have said, sorry Boks, an international tighthead can’t play tighthead. Uncontested scrums is the worst possible scenario for World Rugby after player safety (and given that Trevor has played tighthead many, many times that was NOT a factor as was expressed after the game). It’s not good enough to allow a competitive advantage to be nullified when we have them on the ropes. We got nothing for our superiority. I don’t mind forgoing the 3 points on offer. I’m all for backing yourself in those situations, but then don’t stop pushing the envelope. That is the difference between the cultures on display on Saturday.

So on to the McCaw try. As a receiver, he has to stand 2m away from the lineout. It is questionable whether he was. Moreover, he cannot move into the lineout to receive the ball until the ball has left the hands of the thrower. It is clear he does start moving before the ball has left the hands of the hooker. The referee never had a clue what was going on. One can see with his body language, that he was quite happy to award the try. Not even a referral! No TMO intervention either. And crucially, where was our leadership to INSIST that this important and defining score be verified. Now I really like Schalk Burger as a human being, and I admire him as a rugby player, so I don’t really want to be too critical, but these are the moments that matter. I’m not sure whether he was empowered to challenge, or whether he did at all, but we needed a result here and there was a window of opportunity to get it, and we didn’t identify it.

http://ratetheref.co.za/2015/07/27/kaplans-comments-the-rugby-championship-round-2/

McCaw caught the Boks napping when he scored a match-winning try in the 74th minute of last Saturday’s Rugby Championship clash in Johannesburg.   The All Blacks ran a crafty lineout move close to the Springbok tryline which saw hooker Codie Taylor throw a low ball to McCaw, who joined the lineout from the scrumhalf position before catching the ball and barging over the line.

Brenden Nel, a rugby writer from supersport.com, claims the try should not have been awarded.

Nel claims that McCaw was offside on two counts and that Garces should have referred the decision to the Television Match Official (TMO).

CLICK HERE to read the supersport rugby writer’s explanation

However Lawrence told Radiosport in New Zealand that the try could not have been referred to the TMO and backed Garces’s decision.

"He (Nel) raises a valid discussion,” said Lawrence. “He says it's a bit clearer on slow-motion, well the referee doesn't have slow-motion on the field. So I'm not convinced it's clear and obviously an issue around where Richie was standing and where he left.

"I'm also not convinced it could have been referred to the TMO to check because my understanding of the TMO process is an instant like that can't be referred and checked.

"Checking whether the receiver was back two metres and did he leave a split second early or was he fine, to my knowledge that can't be referred to the TMO. That's a decision that the referee makes live in the moment," said Lawrence.

Lawrence, 44, retired as a referee in 2012 after copping heavy criticism for the way in which he handled South Africa’s 2011 Rugby World Cup quarter-final defeat to Australia in Wellington.

He said the vitriol he suffered from the fall-out after the Springboks' 11-9 loss to the forced him to retire.