Is this a penalty?

Hello Rugby Ref,

This Saturday during our match the opposition threw a loose pass, which went way over the receiver and towards the touch line at about half way. This left me in a race against my opposite number for the ball. I could see I was going to get to the ball before my opponent and that there was a big empty space behind him, with the ball still rolling close to touch I opted to kick. I made a good clean contact with the ball and sent in down the line towards towards my opponents 10 meter line. which should have left me in a race against the full back who was coming back from the opposite side of the pitch. however the oppositions winger did a slide tackle very much like in the game of football. his feet and legs made contact with mine and wiped me clean off my feet. The contact was made literally a split second after I had kicked the ball so it was no question of being "late".

No decision was made by our referee and play continued they recovered the ball and went on to score there only try in the opposite side of the field.

My questions to you are.

1. Should this have been given as a penalty. In my understanding tripping isn't a legal form of tackling and should be no different in this scenario?

2. Could it possibly have been a yellow card as it was in my opinion cynical? I was favourite to recover the ball and leave myself 1v1 with the fullback

3. If he had instead of tripping me up, tackled me instead would this be considered fair or foul? 

4. Are you classed to have had possession of the ball when kicking a lose ball meaning somebody could tackle you to stop you chasing the ball?

I look Forward to your reply

Kind Regards

Adam

Hi Adam

A tackle is defined as the ball carrier being held and brought to ground, so this was not a tackle as you describe it.  From your description the Rugby Ref would have called it dangerous play, so it would result in a Penalty Kick. Dangerous play could also incur a Yellow Card.

If he had tackled you he would have been tackling a player without the ball (as you fly hacked the ball you were never in possession of it), so that would have been a penalty also.

Hopefully that has answered all your questions.

The Rugby Ref