KEY POINTS:
Rucking is still legal but do it at your peril.
New Zealand Rugby Union referees' director Keith Lawrence offered that explanation and warning yesterday after player and coaching frustrations about clearing bodies from the breakdowns in the opening weekend of Super 14 rugby.
Blues skipper Troy Flavell was
sinbinned after raking Crusader players, teammate Steve Devine was neglected and Chiefs hooker Tom Willis warned for similar infringements while others were binned for slowing down or killing the ball at the breakdown.
Blues coach David Nucifora was unsure whether there was a yellow card "blitz" on players at the tackled ball area but insisted "what we need is to be hard on players not rolling away from the football".
Support came from Chiefs captain Jono Gibbes who asked: "How are we supposed to clear tacklers away if we're not allowed to ruck them? I don't understand that.
"It does makes you, well, not gun-shy, but you perhaps don't play on the edge at the rucks the way you normally do because there's just no room for error."
Lawrence said referees were following a directive from the IRB last November that stamping and trampling was not rucking and offenders had to be dealt with.
"Players are able to ruck the ball, they are not able to stamp on a player or trample a player. By stamp, I mean it is normally one foot with a downward action and sometimes it is repeated more than once. Trampling is often when two feet are used and it is like a tap-dancing type motion.
"And are we saying the players don't understand that?
"If a player is endeavouring to ruck the ball and he comes into contact accidentally with a player's body, provided it is not the head, then play would probably be allowed to continue. Players do not ruck normally when they are standing to their full height, they are usually bent over and bound to a teammate in a driving motion.
"There is an extra requirement, I guess, for players to be accurate in what they are doing."
There was no veto on players rucking the ball. However when they started raking bodies or began stamping or trampling, they risked serious penalty.
Lawrence agreed that referees needed to do more to clear players from the tackled ball zone and also noted players had an onus to clear the area as well.
"I think that, at times, is a fair comment about referees," Lawrence said. "We need to be more vigilant about getting players to roll away and get to their feet."
There was nothing wrong with referees ruling more unplayable situations when players were trapped around the ball.
Lawrence had not had any lengthy conversations with his referees about the opening Super 14 round as several were in South Africa and others were in Europe for the Six Nations. He expected feedback on a range of issues shortly.
He had some statistics on the new crouch, touch, pause and engage commands for the scrum. There were only 35 resets from 171 scrums in the weekend Super 14 action compared with the 58 resets from 190 scrums in the same round last season.
* Meanwhile, Blues centre Isaia Toeava is an unlikely starter this weekend against the Brumbies because of shoulder trouble while Sam Tuitupou's knee is making progress.
