World Rugby clarify law following England request

England Rugby have asked for clarity relating to when a ball is deemed to be leaving/emerging from a ruck and when such a ball can be dived on to claim control of the ball.

Law 15 describes how a ruck ends, and says a player cannot fall onto the ball, but we seek clarity on when a player is legally entitled to dive onto the ball?Clarification of the designated members of the Rugby Committee

Relevant law wordings

Law 15.16: “Players must not: d) Fall over the ball as it is coming out of a ruck.”

Law 15.18: “A ruck ends and play continues when the ball leaves the ruck or when the ball in the ruck is on or over the goal line.”

Definitions: Near = within one metre.

The ball is leaving/emerging from the ruck when it is in motion away from the ruck, or when the ball is sitting just beyond the hindmost player.

This becomes relevant when determining if a player can fall onto the ball so that player can comply with law 15.16.

In being consistent with other areas of Law (Scrum law 19.38a, tackle law 14.8d), we determine that the player can only dive onto such a ball if it is more than 1m away from the ruck it has emerged from. ‘Near’ is defined in law as being “within one metre.”

If the ball has left the ruck, then the ruck is over, and the ball is out. Providing a player comes from an onside position and does not dive onto the ball if it is within 1m of the ruck, they may play the ball.

Former England start Kyran Bracken was the first person to reveal why the Quins playmaker was mysteriously frozen out of Jones plans in 2018 despite being a regular up until that point.

“He (Care) made the mistake of speaking his mind to Eddie Jones and questioning how he wanted him to play when he was playing with an England ‘B’ team against Japan in the autumn of 2018,” revealed the former England scrum-half.

“Eddie’s response to that was ‘that’s not the f***ing attitude I want’ and he binned him from his plans.”

This story was later backed up by England and Harlequins teammate Mike Brown in his column for the Mail Online with Care confirming he's been blacklisted

DID YOU KNOW? At age 11 he was invited to join the Academy at Sheffield Wednesday Football Club which meant giving up club rugby union for a few years

A knee injury prevented Hartley from travelling to Japan for the 2019 World Cup and effectively ended his England career.

The phone call he received from Eddie Jones was brutal, Hartley revealed.

"You're f***ed mate," Jones told Hartley, despite the hooker's plea for a chance to prove his fitness.

"Even by the standards of the 6am texts he delivers while running on the treadmill, which make the recipient’s balls tighten and the brain melt, this phone call was brutal," writes Hartley in his book.

"He was effectively ending my England career with three words."

Kiwi-born England hooker Dylan Hartley recalled Yarde arriving at England’s Pennyhill base, “a bit bruised and battered” after a club game.

“Eddie greeted him with a bright ‘How are you feeling, mate?’ and the conversation quickly went downhill. ‘Oh, a bit tired.’ ‘F… off, mate.’ ‘What?’ ‘If you’re tired, f… off. I don’t want tired players here.’ As you can imagine, their cosy fireside chat echoed around the halls within minutes.”

He never played for England again.

Brown revealed in his column recently: ‘I’d had one of my best seasons for Quins (2018/19) with really good attacking stats (2019), but Eddie had pigeon-holed me as a defensive full-back. At the end of this meeting, he asked if I had anything I wanted to say.

“I challenged his comments that I was just a defensive full-back, saying I thought I had been adding value to the attack, with examples and stats from my season, before saying I would take away all of his points and that I would do everything I could to get into the World Cup squad.

“He did not like that I had contested what he said and went mad. He shouted: ‘Well you lost the f****** ball in contact on Saturday, didn’t you? That’s f****** not good enough. You’re not f****** doing everything you can.'”

Ultimately, Brown wouldn’t be picked for the Rugby World Cup with Jones saying that his clash with teammate Ben Te’o had nothing to do with his omission. He’s not been picked since.

DID YOU KNOW? He married long term partner, fashion designer Eliza Scarlett Woodcock, the daughter of former England international footballer Tony Woodcock in 2016

Jones wrote in his autobiography that the Sarries legend ‘could not match the pace and snarl of his long-term rival Mike Brown.’ 

However, according to Brown’s column for the Mail Online, Goode clashed with Jones over this opinion in a heated discussion which led to him being jarsj frozen out of the squad after 2016.

The fullback would never win a recall despite being named the 2019 European Player of the Year.

DID YOU KNOW? He is the nephew of Jo Goode, who won an Olympic bronze in Badminton in Sydney.