...when he intercepted at the scrum.

What is the ruling (if any) for where the defending scrum half should stand? I have tried to find the Laws of the Game on the RFL site but no joy.

Reffy?

I think at one time the defending scrum half had to have his hand on the loose forward until the ball came out, but as with most rules surrounding the scrum it's probably been forgotten and let go, but I may be wrong.

Yes he was offside.

"The scrum half of the team not having the put-in shall retire immediately behind his last row of forwards"

.......... and he knew he was offside.

If that's the ruling then he was well offside. It's arguable whether he was level with or in front of our front row when the ball was played by Wakey's scrum half.

Hello there Pat, is that Mr or Mrs btw? now that we've cleared that mystery up in the interest of fairness perhaps we could shed some light on Chris Riley's disallowed try, the one where Child in normal time gave it as a try but the video referee viewed it in slow time perhaps giving a misleading perception that the Leigh player had actually got the ball in his hands, I'm sure you'll agree it's not as cut and dried as Brierley's although it attained the same result.

Or the forward pass from Sam that didn't look forward to me.

It was a very close call that could have gone either way, as Child had signalled try then I don't think there was enough conclusive evidence for the VR to disallow the try.

It's Mr, thanks for asking.

Liam Kay definitely had both hands on the ball when it was kicked by Riley but it was a split second thing. As Reffy says Childs gave "I've got a try" and I too don't think it was sufficiently clear cut to overrule him.

All water under the bridge now but in our cup tie at yours Brierley was disallowed a try for offside from a kick when Thaler gave "I've got a try" and IMO the evidence against that was negligible. Swings and roundabouts.

TVBoy, Sam's pass was definitely forward.

On the 5th July in the Workington versus Leigh game, Jarrod Sammut played the same move that Brierley tried and he was well on his way to the sticks when Jamie Bloem pulled him back and gave offside. I asked Ian Smith if he would look at the incident on the DVD and give me his view on it. He replied that he had shown the clip to all the referees and the part-time refs in real time and they all said offside. He then played it frame by frame and he said it was a lot closer than they all thought. No mention of where he was supposed to stand but Sammut came from the back of the scrum and anticipated a short side move from the base of the scrum and Beswick gave him a lovely pass. Sammut was always behind the ball until the point when he caught it.

Starbug here

This is one of those rules that has over the years been ignored , in the 2 nd half Wakeys HB Miller stood in an identical position to Ryan and then moved across horizontally to tackle the 1 st receiver from the Leigh scrum , ie he was offside , but not given it happens in most games and refs ignore it

Couldn't agree more Starbug.

The law is exactly as quoted by Reffy (have managed to find it since) - in which case every defending scrum half at every scrum at every RL match in the entire world is always offside!!

A grey area from when there was contested scrums. A case of old rules still being in place, after new ones have been added.I can't remember seeing a scrum half penalised for making a tackle at the scrum,but as soon as they end up with ball in hand the whistle usually blows.

It is becoming more common that the player who is packing down, I use the term loosely, at the back of the scrum is the one who distributes the ball, therefore there is less chance of the defending SH being able to effect a tackle.

So Reffy,If whoever is at LF and takes the ball,does that not put the defending SH on-side.

They also have to be within touching distance of scrim.
Not stood 2 yards away otherwise again offside.

Where is the defending SH standing in your scenario?

That's my point.It makes no difference were the defending SH is stood before the put in.Ryan was penalised for offside as he met the ball the same time as release from scrum so has to be offside.

You have lost me.

What I'm saying is Ryan wasn't penalised for were he was standing prior to the put in. He was penalised for taking the ball before the ref called "out"...

He was offside

Starbug here

As was Miller later in the game , but not given

The moment the LF touches the ball with his hand the scrum is over and the defending team can move forward , bottom line is Childs didn't know what to do

Bottom line is that Brierley was offside so Child got it right.

Starbug here

Fair enough , but he got it wrong later on with Miller , as do most refs in probably every game played

Bottom line is they'll punish an attacking move but allow a defensive one

The point being,the ref blew it up, not for were he was stood at the scrum prior to put in. Thats the point I'm making,yes he was offside but had nothing to do with his position prior to the put in.

I can't say I've noticed that we go to the blind side before. We usually have the winger or occasionally a forward taking a drive from stand off.

In the Leigh game we did it a lot.
So not sure if Brierley spotted something very quickly and tried to take advantage or I just have my eyes shut at scrums and Rowley knew we did it but even after he nearly scored on this move we did it a few times more. He was getting close each time.