Out or Not

By Referees Department

Is the ball out or not?

For an AR to adjudicate whether in touch or not he needs to know 3 things:

1. from where the player started and ended
2. with or without the ball
3. and whether the Plane of Touch (the vertical space rising immediately above the touch line) comes into play or not

Let’s look at the Clip: An Irish player jumps from the field of play, catches the ball, and just before he lands in touch, he flings the ball backwards into the field of play.

So, the AR sees:

• the player started to play the ball from the field of play
• left the ball in the field of play
• and landed in touch without the ball. Therefor the Plane of Touch did not come into play

The AR adjudicated that the ball is not in touch and correctly so. This is covered in law:

• Law 18.2.c: The ball is not in touch or touch-in-goal if a player jumps from the playing area and knocks (or catches and releases) the ball back into the playing area, before landing in touch or touch-in-goal, regardless of whether the ball reached the plane of touch.