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For Van der Flier’s maul try did Gibson-Park get caught joining the maul ahead of him illegally? Something I spotted but heard no mention of it afterwards.

A defender attempted to join the maul on the try-line but GP got between VdF and the defender. If GP hadn’t blocked the defender then the defender would have had a chance to maul onto VdF and looked likely the defender would have gotten his hands on the ball.

Would the defender have been illegal there or should GP have been penalised?

No, he joined the maul to the right side of Van der flier, with Furlong at the back of the maul. He bypassed about three players and right in front of the ref he joined onto the side and blocked the defender getting access to the ball carrier.

This is a second later just as Van der flier crosses the line, GP is actually after slipping ahead and is basically a shield now dragging him forward from in front. It’s actually quite amazing, I’ve seen that given as a penalty this season, I don’t know what the ref or the linesman or the TMO were looking at to have missed that.

The replay was even clearer,

Sternum is strange way of defining it given it's a vertical thing in your chest rather than horizontal.

This law is potentially quite dangerous. If the option to make an upright tackle is removed the chances of getting your head on the wrong side while trying to tackle a player who could change direction go up.

I think that line is in keeping with their one liner "Belly Tackle = Safest Tackle" get that message across and you eliminate high tackles

Sorry if this has been dealt with before but nobody that I've asked about it seems to know.

So we know that it's illegal to deliberately throw a pass into touch or to throw it over the dead ball line. I know there's a famous example of a French (???) player passing it dead in the 81st min to give away a penalty but i can't find it.

I'm wondering how these three situations would be judged. For all three, lets say we're in the 80th min of a game, the leading team are in possession near their own try line. The 10 is hanging back by the dead ball line to take the pass to kick it out. The last ruck of the game is messy, the ball spills out and the 9 is under pressure. then one of the following happens:

1. The 9 gets pass away but it's bad and goes over the 10's head and goes dead.
2. The pass goes towards the 10, but he's after looking away for a second so it goes dead.
3. The ball is going towards the 10 (or maybe a winger near the touchline) but there's a defender up in their face so they just step out of the way and deliberately let it go dead.

I know it's niche but I'm always curious about edge cases like this.

So for situation 1 or 2 then it's down to how genuine it looks?

Situation 3 is the one that looks most open to abuse, though admittedly in very niche cases. The pass is genuine, but there's no obligation to catch it.

The obvious solution to ROG is to bounce it off the post. Easy

on 1 depends on how far over the 10s head the pass goes. was the 10 realistically able to catch the pass. if ref deems they werent then they could be penalised. same with 2 all on officials belief that the 10 deliberately chose to not play ball.

3 penalise them

Yeah, or catch and ground it. There are simpler ways around it for sure.

For situation 3, are you penalising them under the deliberate pass law or the sportsmanship law?

Obscure hypothetical number 2. This one I've seen nearly happen twice in the last year. If a player is diving to score a try in the corner, and they with their leg/foot on top of the corner flag, does that count as in touch or not? I don't mean that they make contact with it. I mean they knock it down then their foot lands on top of it so that it is keeping the foot from touching the ground out of play?

Straight lines, up to the mark and gap are the three most important aspects. Yes, as a hooker, I am always bugged by the hooker standing on the pitch, but it isn't that important.

why have the law then if it is ignored? a clearer example from saturdays match. the touch judge is right there.

There are lots of Laws in Rugby. The referee and officials seek to run the game fairly and smoothly. Esp at breakdown and rucks you have the ref constantly instructing players, eg, get back. If they officiated solely with the whistle, we'd have no match.

It isn't exactly a difficult law to referee. Refs and touch judges are quick to step in when the hooker is a foot to the left or right of where they should be.

If it's open play then you are deemed to be off the field of play once you make contact with the line with any part of your foot. Same principle here - that's how I've always seen it being refereed