I have seen refs warn the 9, threaten to give a free kick, but bottle it and not do so despite persistent infringements.
It’s a penalty offence? No wonder refs are reluctant to blow. Make it a free kick and I’ll bet they’ll blow more often.
Is it? I thought it was just a free kick offence?
It’s neither pen or free kick, the sanction is a scrum awarded to the opposition. Law 15.17 Ending a ruck. “When the ball has been clearly won by a team at the ruck, and is available to be played, the referee calls “use it”, after which the ball must be played away from the ruck within (note within, not after) five seconds. Sanction: Scrum”
Problem with this is it’ll slow the game down even more stopping for the scrum and as a wasps fan, we probably wouldn’t want the scrum and would chance the catch from the box kick that 9s take about 15 seconds to set up
I agree, a scrum as the sanction is counter productive, no wonder the refs don't use it. A free kick would be much better. For me free kicks should also be restricted to tap and pass, and penalties should be awarded only exceptionally from scrum 'infringements', with this type of tap and go free kick as the sanction instead. Repeated failed scrums does the game no good whatever.
Always a Wasp
