Restart after drop goal in Rugby Union

[RSDonovan]

Can someone please tell me the answer to a question relating to restarting the game after a drop-goal?

Yesterday, Team A scored a drop goal. The ball just crept over the bar, not far enough to reach the dead ball line. one of team B's players caught the ball, ran the whole length of the pitch, and scored a try at the far end! There didn't appear to be any break in play between the awarding of the drop goal and the awarding of the try.

Is this because the ball never went dead? I don't know enough about the rules to know what the restart position after a drop goal is!

Many thanks in advance

[Pigletion]

A restart from the half-way line is taken if the drop goal is scored.

The only way in which an opposition player could catch the ball and score at the other end is if the ref didn't award the original drop goal, then the ball is still in play (as you state that it never went dead).

Scores in rugby are always followed by a re-start at the half way line (obviously after a try, you get the chance to convert).

[DTCwordfan]

Piglet is right on this. The ball goes dead the moment it goes between the posts and over the bar, (or in a space between the posts drawn vertically upwards if the ball soars high in the air - if you remember there was that controversy with the Welsh kick in the match against South Africa with that, cameras showing that the touch judges underneath got the call wrong. Can't blame them as it was so difficult to call from directly underneath and it should have gone to the match ref.....).

Anyway, I suspect your ref thought that the ball went under the bar and the player would have been in his right ("his" - assuming that it was a men's game) to run the length of the field, if that had been the case.

[RSDonovan]

Thanks for your answer; but both the drop-goal AND the try were awarded, and were reflected immediately on the scoreboard. The result now on the IRB website tallies. If the try had not been awarded, the result would have gone the other way!

[Kayless]

Which game was it? As above events must have been misunderstood somehow

[dSmith124]

A definite mistake by the officials at the game: https://atroxrugby.com/rugby-rules/