I recently saw this great clip featuring French player Francois Trinh-Duc’s doubly-clever move to set up a try for his team mates. What’s on play here is a sound knowledge of the laws of the game not just by Trinh-Duc, but by his team mates as well.
1. The player in white kicks the ball out ‘on the full’, meaning that the lineout will go to the blue team back from a line where the ball was kicked because the player doing the kicking was in front of his 22m line. (This also is true if the ball kicked was passed back to a player inside the 22m by someone outside of it.)
2. To ensure this happens, as it’s probably unclear to Trinh-Duc if the ball is truly going to go out, he straddles the touch line BEFORE making his catch. Simply put, he did not carry or knock the ball out. By having at least one foot in touch when he caught the ball, he was already out, and as such made the ball that was kicked by his opponent out.
There are a lot of situations like this that can be very confusing even to veterans of the game, largely because we rarely see them. There’s a great document from Australia that outlines pretty much every possibility, including both feet in, one in and one out, and while jumping in the air. It can be found by clicking THIS LINK.
3. Knowing that a quick throw is possible before the lineout is set, Trinh-Duc runs forward to where the assistant ref marks the spot that the lineout will occur. Up until this season, the quick throw could only take place from the spot the ball crossed the touchline or further back toward one’s own goal line. This year, as can be seen in this video, the quick throw can take place at the ‘line of touch’ – or where the lineout will occur when kicked out on the full. Explanations and further examples from the IRB Laws site can be found HERE and HERE.
4. He makes a quick throw – which must go 5m – to a team mate, who sets up another for the score. Trinh-Duc could have taken the quick throw from where the ball went out. But knowing that it’s now possible to take the throw from where the lineout will occur, he took the opportunity to run it forward and gain some free metres (as well as get behind most of the opposing players who’d chased the kick). This can be a bit confusing if you’re new to quick throw-ins, but the new Law trial actually makes more sense than the way it was before because the options then were take a quick throw down field or wait and have a proper lineout upfield. Now players have the option of making a quick throw anywhere from where the lineout should occur all the way back to one’s own goal line.
Quick throw can occur anywhere from kicker in blue back to the goal line.
This is entirely possible at any level, but players wanting to make a quick throw must use the same ball and it has to be taken by the person who fetches the ball (not chucked to someone else who takes the quick throw). Catching the ball cleanly before this happens makes setting up quick throws that much easier. Hopefully refs at your level are aware of these things as well!
Conversational Rugby 