It took just five minutes before irony crept into Ireland’s win over Scotland. Doubtlessly debate will continue over a law, which was broken by Scotland and then saved the home side from going a try down in the opening stages of the match.
At a lineout, Scotland injudiciously went for a quick throw five metres from their own try line. But the throw was taken with a different ball to the one that was kicked into touch, which is not allowed.
A similar incident occurred in the 2011 Six Nations Championship, which was not picked up by the referee, when Wales played against Ireland in March of that year. On that occasion the illegal lineout throw resulted in a lawless piece of opportunism that worked out well for Wales.
Johnny Sexton had just come on for Ronan O’Gara, around 10 minutes into the second half, when he put a kick straight into touch.
The ball went beyond the advertising hoardings and into the hands of the crowd. Meanwhile, Matthew Rees picked up another ball from an official and prepared to take the lineout.
Wales scrumhalf, Mike Phillips called to Rees, who threw a quick lineout to him. Suddenly, Phillips was galloping clear and managed to fend off the tackle of Irish winger Tommy Bowe and went over in the corner for a Welsh try.
Although the referee consulted with the nearest touch-judge, he didn’t appear to have anything illegal to report and the try was awarded to Wales.
On Sunday, the Scotland lineout throw was also taken quickly. But sharp Irish number 8, Caelan Doris fetched the high ball at the back of the line and crashed to the ground.
In support hooker Dan Sheehan fed off the turnover and scored what appeared to be Ireland’s first try. This time the touch judge also spoke to referee Luke Pearce but with a different outcome than in Wales over 10 years ago.
“They’ve taken a quick lineout but with a different ball. They can’t do that,” said the touch judge.
The try was not allowed and Doris, who received treatment on the pitch immediately after feeding Sheehan departed from the game eight minutes later, having injured himself on the fall after catching the ball.
The result was that Ireland were effectively penalised and Scotland spared an early try against them because they broke the rules by using a different ball that had been touched by a third party when it went into touch.
