Hi all,
I was a little surprised by the ruling by the referee in the second Bledisloe test between the Wallabies and the All Blacks that Samisoni T could not be replaced by Cody Taylor until a scrum had set and that once Taylor came on, the All Blacks had to reduce their player numbers to 14 on the field. This seems like an error to me under the laws?
Here is a description of what happened.
- Cody Taylor is replaced by Samisoni T early in the second half. I believe this was a tactical substitution rather than an injury substitution otherwise Taylor would not have been able to eventually come back on.
- Samisoni gets injured and has to leave the field. The referee says that Taylor cannot come onto the field to throw in the lineout and that they have to wait for a scrum.
- The All Blacks knock the ball on at the lineout immediately and Taylor comes on. However, the referee says that the All Blacks have to stay at 14 players so Timoci Tavatavanawai goes off.
According to Law 3.33 (reproduced below), it seems that there is no requirement to wait for a scrum or for the All Blacks to go down to 14 players. Could someone please enlighten me what laws the referee/officials were using? I can't find them anywhere. By my reading of the laws, Taylor should have been able to replace Samisoni??
Law 3.33: Tactically replaced players may return to play only when replacing:
a. An injured front-row player.
b. A player with a blood injury.
c. A player with a head injury.
d. A player who has just been injured as a result of foul play (as verified by the match officials).
e. The nominated player when applying Laws 3.18-3.20.
f. A teammate who has received a qualifying red card, after 20 minutes playing time has elapsed. (Elite rugby only).