You sometimes see Rugby laws being invented on the fly. Some sort of
herd instinct amongst crowds, television commentators and players can
communicate itself to the referees, and then suddenly a new norm is
established.
I think that this is happening with the 'Deliberate Knock-on'. Law 12.1e specifies that:
A player may not make an
intentional knock-on or throw forward. Sanction: Penalty Kick. A
penalty try must be awarded if the offence prevents a try that would
probably have been scored.
This is all quite clear, and has existed for at least the last 40+ years that I've been playing and refereeing the game.
We're now being faced - and not only in the professional game - with an
assumption that a (failed) one-handed attempt to intercept a pass is
automatically a deliberate knock-on. Every deliberate knock-on is a
then taken to be professional foul (negative play) which is therefore
held to be a yellow card offence.
The original assumption isn't justified in every case; often the pass
that leads to the deliberate knock on is a 'miracle' pass that may not
succeed anyway. The Laws of the game don't refer to professional fouls,
and they clearly define the sanction for a tactic which can be used to
cut out a sloppy pass. We should stop rewarding sloppy play - which is
what a yellow card does in some of these cases.
I
just watched the highlights of last weekend's Leicester Tigers v London
Wasps match. Tommy Bell of Wasps attempted to pick off, one-handed a
bad pass by Tigers that would have hit the intended receiver on the
shoulder, admittedly, in the five metre zone, but the pass was terrible -
it
wouldn't have stuck anyway.
Bell just failed to grab the ball with one hand - not a slap down. If
the knock-on hadn't touched the intended receiver of the pass, it's quite possible that Bell would have regathered the ball and made a successful interception and counter-attacked. Instead, he received a yellow card.
At the Community Rugby level, I refereed a match recently where the
passing by the home side was terrible, but each knock-on when attempting
interception of a sloppy pass was called by them as deliberate.
"Yellow card" was muttered in my hearing twice. After the third time, I
had to have a word with their captain, and the appealing stopped. But
it's quite clear that they thought that they could gain an easy
advantage this way.
I think we need to get a grip and stop this nonsense. The Law is quite
clear, and we need to make a proper judgment, for each occurrence, about
whether an offence has been committed. Using one hand to try and reach
a bad pass or a ball lobbed overhead is not prima facie evidence of
intention to knock on. If the pass may well not have reached the
intended receiver, it's also quite possibly difficult to intercept.
A Penalty Kick should only be given when it's absolutely clear and
obvious that an intentional offence has been committed. A Yellow Card
isn't specified by the Law and should only be given if there are
additional aggravating circumstances not sufficiently satisfied by the
award of a PK or a Penalty Try.
If the lawmakers decide that there is a shortcoming, let's go through
the formal process to consider a change. But please, let's not invent
new law on the fly and reward a failed 'miracle pass' with the sanction
of a yellow card against the defender that gets in the way.