Murray Kinsella

WE’VE GOT LOTS of different examples of Dan Sheehan finishing tries in recent months but he surprised all of us, including the Wallabies, with his latest big play.

Most teams task their hookers with being the person to tap five-metre penalties.

Sheehan is good in this role. He has the size, acceleration, and bravery to thrust himself at the tryline, generally making a few metres for Leinster, Ireland or the Lions before the other forwards take over.

Sometimes Sheehan is involved in trick plays where he needs to dummy a carry but instead pass, or leave the ball for someone else to tap. All in all, Sheehan brings a nice variety in this area of the game.

When most players tap and carry, they do their best to stay low to the ground, attempting to drive in under the defenders as they race up off the tryline. Getting caught upright is a recipe for disaster into what are usually double or triple tackles.

We get an example of that low-carrying approach from Sheehan in last weekend’s first Test win over the Wallabies just before Tom Curry’s try.

Sheehan places his left foot ahead of the ball, bringing himself closer to the tryline, then uses his right foot to tap it.

He scoops the ball up as he accelerates off his planted left foot. Sheehan’s acceleration takes him over the first couple of metres and then he starts to dive down towards the ground before tacklers James Slipper, Allan Alaalatoa, and Harry Wilson can make heay contact with him.

The idea of dropping in low is that Sheehan can burrow under the tacklers, rather than getting rocked back by them. Essentially, his decision to drive low in the carry means he can bank those first three metres he has made off the tap.

Curry scores a crucial try for the Lions two phases later.

Fast forward to the second Test in Melbourne on Saturday and Sheehan uses the same approach on the first occasion the Lions decide to go for a five-metre tap penalty.

Sheehan taps with his right leg, races over the first few metres and dives down into the tackle from Slipper and Wallabies hooker Dave Porecki.

The Lions then try a ‘Leicester’ play – something Ireland and Leinster also use, inspired originally by the Tigers – by switching into the shortside with Andrew Porter, only for the Wallabies to read it well and stop him.

A few phases later, the Wallabies are caught offside and the Lions decide to go for another five-metre tap.

As Sheehan stands over the ball, we know what the Wallabies are expecting.

But he pulls out a new move that catches the Australians off guard.

Sheehan again taps and accelerates but this time, he doesn’t dive in low to get under the tacklers.

Instead, he dives straight over the top of them for the tryline.

It’s clearly something the Lions had discussed and planned. We can see Maro Itoje grabbing Sheehan’s shirt and looking to propel him forward just as the hooker dives for the line.

Itoje wants to add any additional velocity he can to Sheehan’s dive for the tryline.

We can see how the two Wallabies tacklers who Sheehan drove under on the earlier tap penalties – Slipper and Porecki – are expecting him to do the same again.

Porecki and Slipper are both dropping in low to try and complete the tackle, expecting Sheehan to be down there too.

Instead, he clears both of them on his way to the tryline.

It’s very clever from Sheehan and the Lions, who show the Wallabies one picture with the hooker’s tap and low carries before they spring a completely different picture on them.

Referee Andrea Piardi awards the try, but the Wallabies immediately appeal, claiming that Sheehan has illegally jumped over the tackle.

“He’s allowed to jump to score the try,” says Piardi as Wilson vehemently tries to get the try overturned.

World Rugby issued a law clarification around this kind of thing back in 2022 at the behest of New Zealand Rugby, following two incidents where players jumped as a defender tried to tackle them.

In the first instance, below, World Rugby ruled that Chiefs number eight Pita Gus Sowakula should have been penalised for jumping to hurdle the tackler, Aaron Smith of the Highlanders.

World Rugby said that Sowakula’s actions here were against Law 9.11, “Players must not do anything that is reckless or dangerous to others including leading with the elbow or forearm, or jumping into, or over, a tackler.”

Wales’ Blair Murray was penalised for the same offence during this year’s Six Nations.

The same month, Moana Pasifika wing Kyren Taumoefolau was not penalised for the incident below, but Super Rugby bosses later admitted that this should have been a penalty against Taumoefolau.

As World Rugby underlined in 2022, “jumping to hurdle a potential tackler is dangerous play” and should be penalised.

In each of these instances involving Sowakula, Murray, and Taumoefolau, they are clearly jumping to clear the defender, with each of them landing again before continuing upfield. They are not diving for the tryline.

The other incident that New Zealand Rugby asked for clarification on in 2022 was Jonny May’s memorable try against Italy.

Frustratingly, World Rugby didn’t actually say whether this finish was legal or illegal.

They rather confusingly said that players should be allowed to dive to score, but also that defenders may attempt “safe and legal tackles” in these instances.

World Rugby added that in rare situations like this one, “match officials have to make a judgement call as to which actions have taken place” and that “if there is any element of dangerous play, in line with the above ruling [re. Sowakula], then a try cannot be the reward.”

It’s very rugby for the governing body to simply say it’s up to the officials to decide in the moment.

Just last month, World Rugby had another request in this area from its own high performance referee manager, Joël Jutge.

“At a ruck/breakdown close to the goal line, the attacking scrum-half picks up the ball and dives forward over the ruck in an attempt to score a try,” read the request.

“Is this legal or should it be sanctioned?”

Lions skipper Itoje was involved in one of the incidents examined.

World Rugby said that these incidents were “potentially dangerous actions, so a player who attempts this and makes any contact with players already on the ground can be sanctioned” with a penalty.

World Rugby did refer to its 2022 clarification in underlining that in these “specific ruck situations, it would be difficult to either dive safely, or then be tackled safely.”

So diving over a ruck to score was confirmed as illegal, as long as the diving player makes contact with other players already on the ground.

But of course, Sheehan doesn’t dive over a ruck for his Lions try, so really the 2022 clarification on May’s try was the most relevant thing for Piardi on Saturday at the MCG.

He knew it was a judgment call from his point of view. The Italian referee decided that Sheehan was making a genuine dive to score the try, rather than dangerously hurdling a tackler.

And that’s the bottom line here – World Rugby basically said that the referee’s judgement call in this kind of situation is the law. Piardi decided it was a try, so it was a try.

Wallabies boss Joe Schmidt – a former World Rugby director of rugby – expressed his concerns about the score post-match.

“It’s illegal to jump the tackle, but he dived over,” said Schmidt. “What it now challenges World Rugby to do is that if we have two guys going in low and a guy dives over that, he is pretty much headfirst.

“So what do we do to stop him scoring, apart from stopping his head? There’s not much else you can do.”

It’s a fair point from Schmidt and underlines how willing Sheehan was to put his body on the line for the Lions. If one of the Wallabies defenders had stayed up high or popped upwards late, it could have been a nasty collision.

But they didn’t. The Wallabies tacklers were lured down into low positions by Sheehan’s previous set-up plays and he soared right over the top of them.

Piardi was happy and Andy Farrell’s men had five crucial points.