Jason Lear asks a question......

Hi,

Can you confirm the laws in the following situation?

Amateur U19 game and we score a try as the last play. The try is awarded by the referee. The opposition players shout at the referee that our player put his foot in touch and their coach then raised his hand to say the our player was in  foot in touch. This all took place after the try was awarded, the referee then un-awarded the try awarding a throw in to the opposition and called full time.

My confusion lies around the fact that the try was awarded? Can a referee scrub a try after awarding it?

Regards,

Jason Lear

Hi Jason

Law 6.A.5 states that the referee may alter his decision after a Touch Judge has raised his flag to signal touch.  So if the opposition coach was acting as touch judge, then the referee was correct.

Quite often at grass roots level the person doing the duties of touch judge may not be up with play, or sometimes they forget they need to put the flag up in the air.  So it is not always clear to the referee that the player has gone into touch.

So in you situation Jason, yes the referee was correct.

Thanks for the question.

The Rugby Ref.