After a well executed lineout maul that must have gone all of 30 meters, Harpenden Rugby Club set up a perfect opportunity to claim a well deserved try. What followed was comedy gold, much to the relief of Letchworth Rugby Club!
Unfortunately all the hard work came to naught, and what should have been a moment of deep satisfaction and achievement, instead turned into one that will surely never be lived down.
credit: don fraser
In American rugby right now, as 15s is being played in many of the states, there's this new mandate to either rope off or chalk off what are called 'tech zones.' They start at the 22s on one side of the pitch only, and go to the halfway line, and are two meters from the touch line, and basically are boxed off areas of touch for players and coaches to stand or sit in. They are five meters deep. It's best to rope off these areas for obvious reasons. I touch judged a game this past weekend, and a wing from Cal Poly's frosh/soph team ran past the touch line straight at me, knocking me over, as I was running in his direction to mark where he ran into touch. He mistook the tech line, between the 10 meter and 22, as the touch line. Of course a report went to the Northern California Referee Society about this! White was the color of both lines, but I think even different colo(u)rs will not work as well as ropes!
That happens whenever the pitch is lined with too many dashes for the 5 meter line, and the dashes aren't all that far apart.
It looks like this pitch could have deeper in goals. Why is it that in goal areas are so short now, even when they do not have to be, as in some venues they need to be short (Bath)? Another fad, like shirt tails not tucked in.
....ugh, brought back memories of me actually beating a defender, was well in the clear and sitting it down on the 5m line...figured the referee could have at least given me 2.5 points or something.
Now that's a first! I've definitely "scored a try" over the 5 metre line, upon which all of us stood there looking at the referee trying to understand why he hadn't blown the whistle. I think he had to say 3 times, "that's the 5 metre line," before anyone reacted we were all so sure a try had been scored. I've seen several "false tries" over the 5 metre line, but never over the touch in goal line. Quite impressive.