The television match official Glenn Newman ruled that Anscombe had not properly grounded the ball before Watson did but after reviewing the 24th-minute incident World Rugby, whose head of referees, Alain Rolland, had spoken to Gatland, ruled that “in accordance with law 21.1b Wales should have been awarded a try as the Wales player grounded the ball”.
The law referred to defines grounding of the ball as “pressing down on it with a hand or hands, arm or arms, or the front of the player’s body from waist to neck”. The dictionary definition of the word to press is: “to move or cause to move into a position of contact with something by exerting continuous physical force”.
Anscombe struck the ball a glancing blow and repeated replays do not show evidence of any physical force, never mind continuous. It was one of those grey areas rugby union’s long list of laws and sub-clauses throws up: Scotland felt robbed of victory in the World Cup quarter-final when Australia were awarded a late penalty and World Rugby subsequently said that the referee Craig Joubert had been wrong.
There appeared to be an argument then for Joubert’s decision, just as there is for Newman’s, but World Rugby has now established a precedent for future groundings. Just as scrum feeds no longer have to go straight down the middle and forward passes are ruled to be within the laws if the movement of the distributor’s hands points backwards, so the grounding of a ball over the goal-line now involves a hand or hands being brought downwards on the ball and making contact, however slight.
Newman is entitled to feel aggrieved because if there had been a mistake, it was not blatant and the wording of the relevant law did not conclusively back up World Rugby’s pronouncement, which was only made after Wales made public the details of the conversation between Rolland and Gatland.