The Waratahs just barely got by the Sharks this past weekend–got by just by their fingertips, in fact. Late in the match, Sharks fullback Stephen Treblanche’s pass to unmarked teammate Ryan Kankowski was swatted away by Waratahs outside back Kurtley Beale, stopping a line break that was on its way to the white line. Beale earned a penalty and an enforced ten-minute rest for his troubles, but the Sharks camp believes a penalty try would have been more appropriate.

Renowned Australian rugby commentary site Green and Gold Rugby offers a useful discussion of the controversy, including some key points of law regarding both intentional knock-ons and penalty tries. Green and Gold’s insight regarding whether or not Beale truly robbed the Sharks of a sure five-pointer are helpful, but the site’s comments on when an intentional knock-on should be awarded raise a more general issue about the difficulty involved in assessing a penalty for a deliberate knock-on. As Green and Gold indicates, the law states:

A player must not intentionally knock the ball forward with hand or arm, nor throw forward.

If the knock-on is intentional, a penalty is awarded. If unintentional, of course, the result is a scrum. A big difference, even when the situation is not as dramatic as it was when Beale committed his knock-on. The law makes perfect intuitive sense, as swatting a ball away is a cynical offense that should be punished much more strictly than an accidental case of butterfingers. But there is one problem. It’s challenging enough for a referee to see everything on the park, even with the help of assistant referees. But the “intentional” wording requires a referee to see inside a players’ mind.

The Green and Gold discussion does a good job of mentioning some ways Beale’s intent might be judged, such as the position of his body, the motion of his arms, and his pursuit of the ball after the knock-on occurred. However, all of these indicators could be construed as ways to judge Beale’s acting ability as much as his legitimate intent, so the question remains: How does a referee judge a player’s intent? Few other laws are construed in the same manner. While intent might be used in a decision to award a yellow or red card, intent doesn’t seem to be a factor in awarding penalties for infractions like offsides, late tackles, and so forth.

So, regardless of how you view the Beale situation, our question is: Should referees really be in the mind-reading business? And if not, how do you judge a deliberate knock-on more empirically? By whether they got both hands to the ball? By body position?

It’s a tricky question, and one we’d rather ask than answer. Mull it over as you watch the below video, and please post a comment if you have a solution worked out!

Incidentally, Green and Gold also points out that there was a similar incident on the same weekend involving Will Chambers of the Reds where not even a penalty was awarded, as you can see here (we won’t comment on whether Chambers’ teammate Quade Cooper might have had sticky enough fingers to hang on to the football):

And if you’re not yet convinced that the deliberate knock-on issue is a bit murky, consider this referees’ discussion of another dubious example from 2008.

Based on this weekend’s first round of matches, we’d have to say the new interpretations look like a success even if there were a few high penalty counts as players get used to the new guidelines. In fact, we’re already hoping that the new guidelines catch on worldwide. We may get our wish, considering that the new interpretations may be seen in international tests in a few months. But we’ll let you be the judge after taking a look at these highlights from three of the weekend’s matches:

Bulls v. Cheetahs:

Blues v. Hurricanes:

Brumbies v. Force:

Clever, who also plays for the Golden Lions in South Africa, put his fitness on display on a recent episode of Fox Sports Net’s Sport Science. The clip, which is featured on USA Rugby CEO Nigel Melville’s blog, investigates Clevers athletic performance before and after a bout of dehydration.

The clip is instructive regarding the level of fitness achieved by top rugby union players, but it does leave one question: does Sport Science try to kill all of its guest atheletes?

And here’s an idea of how he got that fit:

The Springboks’ loss to France was overshadowed by a debacle surrounding the performance of the South African national anthem. After the match, enraged Springbok representatives claimed that a poor rendition of the anthem insulted the vistors and affected their play.

Even after it was revealed that South African representatives were responsible for recommending the anthem’s performer, France found itself apologizing. The singer offered his own explanation that he had been sabotaged, though some government officials in South Africa were unconvinced and went so far as to suggest the performance was an act of treason. (Though it bears mention that this particular anthem has been butchered in the past by home crowds as well, and more deliberately.)

We’re hoping that the whole fiasco is over, but we are also reminded that the issue of suspiciously subpar anthem performances for visiting sides is not terribly uncommon. On the same weekend, for example, there were murmurs about a sound failure during the performance of New Zealand’s national anthem before the All Blacks put away Italy. Earlier this year, the United States’ loss to Canada was prefaced by an error in the American anthem’s performance.

The idea of pinning a loss or a poor performance on a sabotoged anthem might be a stretch, although it wouldn’t be the first time a hometown conspiracy was blamed for a rugby union loss. That said, one has to wonder if we might see some sort of regulatory efforts from the International Rugby Board to ensure consistent standards applied to anthems and other pre-match events.

In case you haven’t yet got to hear the anthem heard ’round the world, here is a clip of that much-maligned performance from this past weekend:

And here’s another performance of the anthem for comparison.

And just for good measure, here’s one more effort to make amends by the now-infamous singer:

There’s not much musical nous here at Armchair Playmaker, so you’ll have to draw your own conclusions.

One problem, though, is that it has still often looked like there’s no legitimate third contender in the sport to pressure those two antipodean rivals, England went ahead and beat New Zealand today. That means that the Four Nations final won’t include New Zealand, and it also means that the tournament this year was competitive enough that tournament final will include a side with a loss (England) and a side with a draw (Australia). Only struggling France failed to emerge from the tournament without a win in the end, and even France led England at half-time when the two European sides met in the tournament.

A cynic might say that the emergence of apparent competitiveness between Australia, New Zealand, and England isn’t much, and that it only means rugby league is at best a three-horse race (even if France competed gamely with them and there are other interesting international matches going on right now as well). Compared to rugby union, for example with its hundreds of member nations, three sides offering legitimate contention for the title is far from competitive. Right? Maybe. After all, how many teams have held the top spot in the International Rugby Board’s rankings over their entire history since being introduced in 2003?

Let’s see: There’s England (ranked #1 at points during 2003 and 2004), New Zealand (ranked #1 from mid-2004 to late 2007 and during parts of 2008 and 2009), and South Africa (ranked #1 during parts of 2007, 2008, and 2009, including right now). That would be … three sides?

Looking at things that way, international rugby league might be reasonably competitive after all, more so if England can rise to the occasion in next week’s Four Nations final. In any case, it looks like rugby union is watching.

Here’s a fan’s view of a few moments from England vs. New Zealand:

We can’t find much other video out there yet to post for today’s matches, but here are some earlier tournament highlights:

Australia vs. England:

New Zealand vs. France:

Australia vs. New Zealand:

England vs. France:

The documentary, whose title is a play on the “Sleeping Giant” term often used to describe the state of rugby union in America, will not be released in major theaters but will aim for other exposure via film festivals, television, sales, rentals, and online streaming delivery.

Visit the film’s official site for more information on its pending release, and have a look at the trailer below for an advance look:

A Giant Awakens – Trailer HD 1 from sylvain doreau on Vimeo.

In the meantime, you may want to have a look at the 2008 documentary Try for another chance to see American rugby on film. It is available for twenty U.S. dollars, and can be previewed below:

If you think that joke has already grown old, then at least you can enjoy these highlights from the match:

In a word, Twitter is a site that allows people to make accounts and post very short sentences about what they’re doing, sites they’d like people to read, questions for others, etc. In that way it’s not so different than a blog, but with entries of only 140 characters each. (No, the Armchair Playmaker site doesn’t have a Twitter account to go with this site–we just don’t have enough to say for two sites!) (UPDATE: A day after this post went up, we decided we couldn’t resist snooping on the stars and make an ACP twitter account.)

One of its most popular uses, though, is not to post but to read others’ entries. Users can make an account and “follow” another user to see what that user posts, so many people choose you “follow” friends and celebrities.

We’re not weighing in on whether the Twitter phenomenon is a passing fad or here to stay, but given the topic of the bog we may as well point out that there are a number of rugby union and rugby league personalities who use Twitter. Here are just a few of the well-known people and organizations from the rugby codes you can “follow” with Twitter to see what they have to say (or, if you don’t have a Twitter account, you can just look at their sites anyway):

-David Campese, former Australia rugby union star (not to mention uncle of current league star Terry),
-Will Carling, former England rugby union captain,
-Canterbury of New Zealand, popular union and league kit provider,
-Karmichael Hunt, best known at the moment for his impending jump from rugby league to AFL,
-Leinster Rugby, the 2009 rugby union Heineken Cup champions,
-Victor Matfield, South African rugby union star,
-Ewen McKenzie, who may need to change his “LeLink” Twitter name after getting sacked last -night as coach of Stade Francais, and
-Lote Tuqiri, former Australian union and league star who has used Twitter a fair bit of late to keep his fans informed.

You may find more of your own favorites if you look for youself. If you can’t resist the Twitter phenomenon, have a look at the video below to learn how to get on board. Just beware that you might be part of the majority of Twitter users who quit the service in the first month.

Anyone we missed who you’d like on the list? Leave a comment below with your recommendations.

Considering that logic, the format of July’s two biggest three-match series in rugby league and rugby union might seem a bit odd to Americans. The British and Irish Lions tour culminates in a best-of-three test match series against the hosting nation, and the State of Origin interstate series is a best-of-three as well. This year, both series were “clinched” after two matches. On the Lions’ tour, South Africa won two in a row against the visitors while Queensland won the first two Origin matches against New South Wales. That left the final matches of both series with the derogatory “dead rubber” title. Competitors and fans were left with two matches that meant nothing to the series outcome.

One might ask: “Why bother playing them if they don’t matter?” The dead rubbers don’t matter to the series, sure, but have a look at these clips from the third matches of the two series and see if you think they didn’t matter:

British and Irish Lions match three:

State of Origin match three:

Dead rubbers indeed!

• The sides were locked at twenty-six points apiece after regulation, so two ten-minute extra periods were played.
• With the draw unbroken after extra time, the number of tries scored in the match was the next tiebreaker. This was moot, however, as each side had scored two tries during the match.
• each side nominated five kickers to attempt one placekick at goal each from the 22-meter line in front of the posts.
• After each side made four goals, the kicking competition went into “sudden-death” mode (wherein the first side to miss a goal loses, so long as the other side made a goal in the same round) with a new set of kickers. In the third round of this segment, Cardiff flanker Martyn Williams pushed an attempt wide to end the marathon and send Leicester into the final to be played in a couple of weeks.

The format was unpopular with many given that it forced players specializing in things other than goalkicking to do as much with the match at stake, but it was still exciting. Aside from the tense finish, the match also served to answer a few fans’ curiosity regarding how a tie is resolved in a knockout match after extra time.

Or did it? Actually, even though the format seen last weekend is used in the Heineken Cup, the format will be reconsidered next year. Further, other competitions don’t do it the same way, so seeing the shoot-out last weekend actually tells very little about how the matter is settled throughout the sport.

If you’ve read this far, we assume you’re interested in hearing how all of the competitions settle a draw in playoff situations where a winner must be determined, so here’s a partial list of competitions and their tiebreaking methods:

• The Guinness Premiership (England’s top domestic competition) has a similar format as the Heineken Cup, but the kicks vary in placement by round with some in front of the posts, some 15 meters from the left and right touch lines, and some 5 meters from each touch line.
• In the Super 14 (featuring top sides from New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa), two formats are used, on for the semifinals and one for the finals. In the semis, the sides play two ten-minute extra time periods, after which the deadlock is broken by number of tries scored in the semifinal. After that, though, the similarities with the Heineken Cup and Guiness Premiership end, as the winner is decided by who finished higher during the regular season. The final works the same for the most part, except that the championship is shared as a draw after two periods of extra time if the scored are still level.
• The Magners League (featuring top sides from Ireland, Wales, and Scotland) doesn’t have to deal with the issue, as they don’t have knockout matches and determine their winner after the regular schedule. This year, in fact, Munster clinched the title two matches left to play
• We couldn’t find a clear statement of the American Super League’s format, but we know from the 2008 final that “sudden-death” extra time is played after two extra time periods until one side scores to win.
• The tiebreaker methods used in the Top 14 (France’s top domestic competion) and Super 10 (Italy’s top domestic competition) elude Armchair Playmaker’s limited translation resources. Readers who are more adept at French and Italian are encouraged to chime in!

How do they handle it in rugby league? We’ll spare you the details, but note that for most competitions a “golden point” sudden-death period is either played after 80 minutes (as is done in the National Rugby League in every match) or after two short two extra time periods. The golden point seems to work pretty well–in fact, Leicester seems to support the idea after suffering through the alternative.

Hopefully, that satisfies your curiosity about how a draw is avoided when a draw will not do. Meanwhile, here are a few views of last weekend’s historic moment:

Here’s how the cameras caught it:

And here’s how it looked from at least one spot in the crowd:

We’re not sure it’s fair to focus on a missed goal from a player of Martyn Williams’ stature, especially considering that he probably never expected to be kicking at goal that day, so we’ll end here with a cheerier moment from early in Williams’ standout career (this one from more than a decade ago, before he ever donned a Cardiff shirt):