Ref Watch: Scoring when out, is a reality in rugby!

My name is Alex, and I am a rugby referee.

Quite the admission – I know. But I am arguably an addict too.

You need to be fit, make split second decisions, use discretion, communicate, and know the many implications of the law.

All while in the cauldron of a high-pressure sporting environment. The challenge out on the field is what excites me.

As World Rugby Referee Ben O’Keeffe said when I interviewed him for the SuperSport Schools’ Podcast, pressure builds diamonds.

Now, some might call it asking for abuse, but I call it a perfectly civilized way to spend a morning.

Today, I want to talk about a little-known law. The thought of enforcing it in school rugby keeps me awake at night. We all know that rugby has more laws than there are words in the English language.

But I am obsessed with this one. The lawbook is my bible, and this law I can quote chapter and verse.  It’s called Law 8.2e. And before you ask, no, it’s not the name of a new Star Wars droid.

But much like Star Wars, it is in the domain of the geek and happens so rarely that when I see it implemented, I get more excited than Heyneke Meyer having a victorious vein-throbbing coronary.

Law 8.2e states that you can score a try while in-touch (or “out”, but that doesn’t sound as fancy) so long as you are not holding the ball and only ground it.

That’s right, you can be in-touch, and still score a try. Now, I don’t know about you, but when I first read the law, it sounded like cheating to me. I mean, if you’re out, you’re out.

You can’t touch the ball! But apparently, there’s a catch: If you are out and apply downward force to the ball (i.e., do not hold it) and it’s already in the in-goal area, then it’s still a try.

This has been a law since at least the 1950s. So, it’s not like they just made it up to mess with us.

That’s what we have scrums for.

Now picture this: me having to explain this law in the middle of a match to a group of U15s who are convinced they know absolutely everything about everything (I know I did). How do you reckon that’s going to pan out?

“Alright guys, listen up – I’m aware that each and every one of you is dead certain that he was in touch, and you’re not wrong, but it’s also a try.” I imagine shortly afterwards I’ll have to say, “No I am not concussed.”

But there’s more to this story. You see, I made a TikTok video about this law after seeing it happen live for the first time, in a bid to inform and get ahead of the issue. The video got over a quarter-of-a-million views in 24 hours.

That’s a lot of people watching a rugby referee explain a bizarre law. It’s like getting excited about the OED (Google it – you’ll see why). But out of the hundreds of comments, one person chose to ruin my day.

Out of nowhere this person, who we shall call Gandalf, appeared, and left a single comment that altered history. Gandalf said, “Yeah – but not if the ball was in the air first.” And that little comment sewed a seed of doubt that soon grew into a baobab.

I discovered that Clarification 1 of 2012 requested by the French Rugby Union reveals (with the old law numbers and wording) that the principle of Law 8.2e do not apply if you, while in touch, first contact the ball when it’s in the air.

So, if you’re in-touch, and ground the ball by palming it down from in the air to the ground, it’s not a try. The only official source for this is hiding in a decade old archive.  To me that seems like a pretty important detail to leave out of the lawbook.

I mean, it’s like saying you can drive a car, but only if you have a steering wheel. Yeah – worth mentioning.

Anyway, I deleted the TikTok video and issued a grovelling apology and correction. To be honest, a try being scored under Law 8.2e is even more unlikely than I previously thought.

How often does the ball just sit nicely in-goal? Not often. And that’s a shame because I was really looking forward to seeing a kid score a try while hanging off the side of a cliff.

But I guess we’ll just have to settle for the regular kind.