Rugby 101 - Know your rucks from your mauls!

I'm sure I've seen JGP throw the ball at an offside player on purpose a few times the last while. And he got the peno. Or maybe it was Luke

With the all the law changes focused on encouraging attacking rugby over the past few seasons, it's quite odd that there hasn't been a push for stronger refereeing of the offside line. It's a quick fix, without any law changes, that would directly make it more attractive for teams to play attacking rugby

Theres probably loads of offsides but how many would be material? Its pointless anyway. You could review a lot of tackle/rucks and pull up something else each time you watch as well.

It depends.

England in their best years under Eddie Jones seemed to live offside. Their defensive set was based off being up in teams faces as fast as possible and you nearly always had their 12&13 starting well ahead of the back foot. It was fundamental to how they would try to shut down teams who tried to beat the English bulk with a faster back line

Properly refereeing the offside for teams such as that would have a massive impact on the game

One a player who started from an onside position has moved forward, anyone they pass is brought onside by that player.

The logic being if they had started from an onside position they’d be no worse than they currently are once the onside player reaches them

Well, what is material: 1mm, 10mm, 1000mm? Surely, some degree of offside matters or why have laws about it? Take your pick and we’ll make that the standard. At the moment, in my very inexpert opinion, there is insufficent consistency in enforcement.

That's very different to the consistent tactic that plenty of teams employ of having a hard rush defence in the centre channels and usually starting from centre line of the ruck or even oppositions back foot, instead of starting from their own back foot line.

TMO for the last play in the Scotland v Italy game should be shot. Fagerson miles offside stopped the try, caused the knock on.

Question : Re Frawley's monster penalty versus LAR. Say in theory Leinster are given that peno & the match clock is < 90 seconds remaining. They indicate a kick @ goal. The kicker runs down the clock to the point it is now in the red & instead of going for goal he kicks the ball into touch. What is the sanction(if any against the kicker). Can he claim he sliced it. Does the kicker have to be seen to make a genuine attempt at kicking the goal. Is there a rule in the book about such an eventuality ? Just a theoretical question as if Frawley had missed & the ball hadn't gone dead there was a risk LAR could have gone the length og the field & scored an unlikely try & conversion.

This is explicitly covered in law by 8.20.

Side note, you said 90 seconds. That's a conversion. A penalty is 60 seconds.

Anyway,

Like all laws in rugby, it's open to interpretation what the referee considers 'a kick at goal'. Referees aren't mindless machines, and in the case of a match with only a few seconds left, I think most referees would see through this and award a scrum to the opposition team.

The same applies at a restart kick. You can't just kick the ball out of play or not ten, thinking it'll cause a scrum and the match will be over. Or at a lineout, if time expires in between when the ball went out and when the throw is taken. A team that wants the game to end could throw the ball crooked on purpose to cause a scrum. But the scrum will still take place, even though time is up for exactly this reason.

Has to be a genuine attempt at goal. Penalty against the team kicking thr goal if officials deem it not a genuine attempt

Cian Healy would have to have been listed as a possible hooker option. Didn't just say, 'I did that before'.

The sanction here is a scrum, not a penalty. Here's a video of it happening in a ProD2 match.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxW2xyMVJTY

The story I've heard is that ever since Italy ended up down to 13 because of a red card and an injury to a hooker, Ireland have been listing their front rows as being able to play all possible positions they're in any way capable of playing, just in case.