Saturday, October 20, 2007

Was it a try?


On repeated replays, probably not. But given the skill of the play leading up to it, and the scarcity of tries in the latter stages of the rugby world cup, and the difficulty of determining that it was not a try, shouldn't it have been one?

UPDATE: There's a simple rule change that would deal with cases like this. The field referee should make an initial decision based on what he sees on the field. The video ref can then decide whether there's enough evidence to overrule the call as it was made on the field i.e. the American football rule. Since there is no camera angle that shows conclusively when Cueto touched down the ball compared to where his leg was, the try would have stood. As it should. Otherwise the IRB could be looking at top-flight rugby devolving into a kicking and possession game.

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