World Rugby amend ruling which saw Wallabies star Israel Folau hit with suspension against Ireland
IN a major win for Rugby Australia, a new ‘Izzy Law’ has been introduced by World Rugby which will get Wallaby Israel Folau flying again after a review of the dynamics involved in contesting kicks in the air.
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A NEW “Izzy Law” has been introduced by World Rugby which will get Wallaby Israel Folau flying again after a review of the dynamics involved in contesting kicks in the air.
The decision from the governing body’s executive committee is a major win for Rugby Australia and common sense because it throws a fresh interpretation on the controversial one-match ban dealt Folau in June.
A new onus has been put on lifters to bring safely back to ground any player they have thrust in the air to contest a kick in open play.
A free-kick will now be whistled by referees on any lifter abandoning his player in the air like Irish prop CJ Stander did in the third Test in Sydney in June.
Stander’s incomplete action magnified the issue for Folau when there was a dangerous element judged in his mid-air contest for a kick with Irish skipper Peter O’Mahony.
A Folau hand on the chest of O’Mahony did contribute to him toppling awkwardly to the ground yet the Irishman was on his own in the air with no support from Stander to bring him safely down from orbit.
It is a significant result for RA chief executive Raelene Castle, who led the push for World Rugby to change the law when a challenge was formalised in July.
“When you have a world-class athlete who has a strength, the rules shouldn’t be based around stopping someone who is doing something at a world-class level,” Castle said at the time.
“The thing that’s causing a problem is the one-man lift.”
The law amendment was announced on Friday night at the end of a week of highly-productive World Rugby meetings in Sydney on a wide range of issues, as judged by chief Bill Beaumont.
On player welfare grounds, a new Law 9.26 will carry a free-kick sanction if this stance is not followed, “Players who support or lift a teammate must lower the player to the ground safely as soon as the ball is won by a player of either team.”
It wasn’t Folau who had to lift his game in June but World Rugby and the amendment comes into immediate effect.
NSW Waratahs coach Daryl Gibson wasn’t the only confused figure in the game who had asked at the time: “Is the onus on the person going for the ball or the team who chooses to defend that tactic with a single lift?”
A citing officer, a three-man panel and another three-man appeals panel, dissecting multiple camera angles, all reached the verdict there was a dangerous or reckless element to Folau’s contest with O’Mahony in the air.
Folau has been far less prominent with his aerial challenges since, perhaps because coaches have feared a rash of cards, so the new stance will help get “Air Folau” back in the skies.
All Blacks coach Steve Hansen will be as pleased with the law amendment as Wallabies coach Michael Cheika.
“The game’s got faster, it’s got really fluid but we haven’t really changed the way we ref,” Hansen had said in June when advocating World Rugby take ownership of the issue as it now has.
Still active in any aerial contest gone wrong will be the law that states: “A player must not tackle, charge, pull, push or grasp an opponent whose feet were off the ground.”
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Originally published as World Rugby amend ruling which saw Wallabies star Israel Folau hit with suspension against Ireland