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'More ruck rubbish': Last second call in Brumbies loss to Blues under scrutiny
By Sam Smith
Beauden Barrett's drop goal may have sealed the win but had he missed the Blues would have had another chance from right in front due to referee Damon Murphy calling a penalty at what was the last ruck of the game.
After a Roger Tuivasa-Sheck carry, reserve Brumbies back Ollie Sapsford went to compete for the ball over the top of Blues flanker Dalton Papalii who had slipped off his feet.
After a long contest, Murphy decided to penalise the Brumbies after calling for a release of the ball by the defending side. The penalty was not required by the Blues, but the contentious call was reviewed by fans.
Some were of the view Sapsford entered the ruck from the side, others that he was not supporting his own body weight by leaning on Papalii. Those who believed the ruck contest was fair thought the Brumbies should have been awarded the penalty.
On the post-match broadcast, Brumbies captain Allan Alaalatoa said he expected to receive an apology this week from the officials over the calls that saw the home side on the wrong side of a 16-5 penalty count.
"We showed so much heart tonight; our backs were against the wall through the whole game," captain Allan Alaalatoa said on Stan Sport.
"I think some of those were our fault, but mate I reckon we'll get an apology later in the week, some videos (reviewing the penalties).
"We defended our hearts out and I just don't feel we were getting the rub of the green ... but we still managed to be up in the 79th minute."
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There is nothing particularly significant about Ireland in this regard compared to other Tier 1 nations. To look at 'strategy' for illegal play its best to see what teams push boundaries with new laws. SA have milked two tries at ruck block downs. The strategy is to charge the first few before the ball is out at about 4 seconds but pull out and put up hands in reigned apology. The referees usually allow the scum half to clear without awarding a penalty in this scenario. The problem with that being that the scrumhalf is now taking over 5 seconds through no fault of his own. Having achieved a few slow balls > 5s , the SA forward can now pick a scrum to charge dead on 5s. Now if the scrum half waits, he will concede a penalty, as we saw against Scotland. With the new rule in place, any early charge should result in an immediate penalty.
SA also got an offside block against England which was pivotal again after a couple of 'apologetic' offside aborted charges forcing England to clear slowly.
Go to commentsYep, you're not the sharpest tool in the shed are you?
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