Late Tackles

[NHH]

Ok, so today was our exhibition game before the season starts and I (being the scrum half) frequently got tackled long after the ball left my hands after a ruck or scrum. The fly half would have already been running with it for a bit or had passed it out and judging from how hard I was hit they never made any attempt to stop before they tackled me. How long after I've passed the ball am I allowed to be hit?

 

[monkeypigeon]

Once it's obvious that they have no chance of making the tackle before you let the ball go they should make a reasonable effort to pull out of the tackle.

You're being done by dodgy reffing! ASk the captain to say it to the ref in future is my advice to you buddy!

 

[NHH]

Well it was usually their flanker who would do it, not even the scrum half

 

[toxicfiend]

BC refs are just awful they are all 70+ year old senile retired players who dont understand the game, couldnt be that much different in ontario

 

[Nickdnz]

I generally am a bit of an enforcer in my team, I would suggest if the ref dosn't act on it in future, get your biggest guy in the team to target their flanker when ever he gets the ball or when he is on the bottom of a ruck. it isn't exactly legal but if they want to late tackle and there is nothing being done you have to take it into your own hands to a certain extent.

 

[Fa'atau82]

Well, if the ref is that dim not to see this from a set-piece repeatedly or tell the other player he is doing it wrong, then just employ whichever tactics you know he will miss. Then it's all level.

In my mind, for a 9 the tackle is only legal if:

i) you have the ball in your hands after it has emerged from the breakdown.
ii) you have touched the ball after it has emerged from the breakdown, even if you touch it and then delay the pass or are hovering/not playing the ball deliberately.
iii) you have just attempted to pass the ball and the tackle is no later than 1 second after the ball has left your hands.

What is illegal:

- Clearing out or 'tackling' the scrum-half in any way directly before he has touched it.

 

[Woldog]

I got done last year for getting a guy who had been late tackling the Kicker like 10 seconds after he kicked almost every time cause the Ref was useless, now I'm not exactly massive, but I can bench 90kg's easy enough so I went for the kick got it away and as the guy came gave him a nice big uppercut, I got redcarded he got concussion, so worth it.

 

[NHH]

Well after the first half pretty much everyone on my team knew who was doing it and he didn't do very well the second half. I got lucky and was able to dump tackle him pretty hard and then my teammates weren't friendly to him in the ruck and he didn't play the rest of the game so I guess I got my revenge.

and toxicfiend its pretty much the same way here and none of them are ever from canada originally

 

[Sportfreunde]

This is a bit of a hockey thing mentality. They don't understand though that even though the sport is physical, it isn't hockey. You don't 'finish your checks'. But if they wanna play like it's hockey then so do you, get a little bit dirty.

 

[best_fullback]

Well the referee must be useless if he can't see a late hit on the 9 everytime.

My thoughts about the law of late hits was:

i) A tackle can only be made when someone has the ball so if you don't have the ball at that precise moment,
ii) A tackle on a player who has just passed the ball is only legal if it is when the player is still in the motion of passing, after this it become a late hit

In some situations it obviously becomes impossible to get out the way but as the tackler you should do your best to mitigate the damage you cause (not that everyone is going to do this!) and the referee would recognise this. 10s get hit as they are passing the ball all the time, either when passing a crash ball or just delaying a pass for a gap, and its perfectly legal. However there is a difference between that and what this guy is doing to you which is definately illegal and should be recognised by the ref.

Shame we can't all have a good referee every week...