CLAYTON MCMILLAN MADE his protest at Thomond Park on St Stephen’s Day after his team had been beaten by Leinster.

The Munster head coach underlined that his players needed to be better with their ball presentation and their clearout work, but he was frustrated with what he felt was illegal play by Leinster at the ruck.

“There were times, I think, where [Leinster] men were swimming around the corners of rucks, something that was brought to the officials’ attention pre-game,” said McMillan.

“A big song and dance was made about that being ruled out of the game at the beginning of the season. It doesn’t seem like it’s being reffed.”

McMillan was asked to expand. He stressed again that Munster needed to do their part better before adding a little more detail.

“I think we see a lot of people getting levers, legs, and swimming around the corner of rucks,” said McMillan.

“It becomes disruptive to the halfback [scrum-half].

“Often the ball will spill out to the side and then you’ve got to play under circumstances that are not on your own terms.”

As well as speaking about the issue publicly, McMillan would have obviously flagged his grievance with the URC directly. He’s right that match officials were asked last year to come down strictly on players who swing around the ruck by penalising them and not ‘managing’ or coaching them away.

And so, McMillan was probably happy when Munster were awarded a penalty for an offence of this very nature by Ulster in their clash last Friday night in Belfast.

As we can see above, Ulster openside flanker Nick Timoney is beaten in the race to the breakdown by Munster centre Alex Nankivell.

So Timoney dips down in a bid to counter-ruck or ‘barge’ through Nankivell to disrupt Munster’s ball or perhaps even force a turnover.

Nankivell is strong enough to resist the front-on counter-ruck effort, so Timoney swings his legs up the left-hand side of the ruck.

Timoney ends up in a side-on position.

Once there, he finds a ‘lever’ on Nankivell’s right leg, lifting it up, and driving it back into the arriving Munster scrum-half Paddy Patterson.

That naturally makes Patterson hesitate in clearing the ball.

Patterson does then play the ball away but referee Mike Adamson says, “Advantage, seven [Timoney] coming around the side, swinging the legs around the side.”

Munster probably should score on advantage as they engineer a two-on-one on the edge but they can’t convert, so Adamson comes back to the penalty.

“Number seven [Timoney], swinging the legs around the outside, slowing it down,” reiterates Adamson.

The onus on defensive players who are counter-rucking is to come straight through the middle of the ruck. Referees and players refer to this as arriving ‘square’ into the ruck or coming ‘through the gate’.

Munster kicked three points from the penalty above and Ulster had been served a costly warning. Not that it helped Munster as they were well beaten by an otherwise very disciplined Ulster team, who only conceded five penalties in total on the night.

But it was notable that the focus on this defensive ruck tactic continued strongly the following day in Dublin as Leinster beat Connacht.

Referee Andrew Brace was clearly focused on this area and he put the foot down early on.

First, he penalised Connacht captain Cian Prendergast for his actions here.

Prendergast arrives and looks to counter-ruck Ciarán Frawley but the Connacht man’s legs swing up the left side of the ruck as he lifts Frawley’s right leg and drives him sideways, with Prendergast’s right foot then causing the ball to bobble loose.

Leinster scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park quick-taps the penalty and Leinster score the opening try from there.

Just a couple of minutes later, Connacht flanker Josh Murphy is penalised for something very similar.

The angle below gives a close-up view of Murphy’s actions.

The Connacht man arrives at the breakdown looking to counter-ruck against Leinster wing Tommy O’Brien, who is aiming to clearout.

Murphy swings his body around O’Brien and into Leinster scrum-half Gibson-Park.

“OK, second one, swinging around the side,” says Brace as he awards the penalty.

As the referee then calls for time off for a player to have a blood injury treated, Brace has an interesting chat with Connacht skipper Prendergast.

“Two penalties for swinging around,” says Brace. “I need you to drive through, not swing around the ruck. It was Josh. Thanks, Cian.”

After a brief pause, Prendergast moves back towards Brace to make a query.

“Bracey, I feel like I went through the gate square there,” says Prendergast. “Did you ping me for that [first] one there, square through?”

“On the touchline? Yeah,” responds Brace.

“I felt like I was square, but it’s because whatever way they’re leaving the lever up, they’re getting swung around, you know what I mean?” says Prendergast.

“Yeah, I think you’re getting into a more advantageous position by swinging around,” answers Brace.

“OK, OK,” is Prendergast’s response and Brace turns to Murphy to say, “Just square, Josh, square.”

Leinster are on the receiving end of a penalty in this area soon after.

Openside flanker Will Connors is the man penalised here.

Brace says, “Seven [Connors], entry. Same for them [Connacht], swinging around, entry.”

Connacht tap the penalty and score through hooker Dylan Tierney-Martin.

Leinter lock Joe McCarthy comes close to being pinged for the same offence just a couple of minutes later, but Brace doesn’t blow for a penalty this time.

McCarthy barges, ends up driving up the left side of the ruck, and lifts Murphy’s leg, nearly driving it into Connacht scrum-half Ben Murphy.

We can see McCarthy pulling away at the last split second, just as Brace says, “No, no.”

And at the next break in play, Brace seeks out McCarthy.

“Joe, if you affect on the nine, it will be a penalty, so be careful. There was already one down there [for Connors].”

And that proved to be that. Beyond the 21st minute of the game, neither side was penalised for swinging around the ruck. 

Both teams being strongly discouraged from continuing with this defensive play contributed to both of them getting more clean, quick ball in attack, although it was Leinster who prospered as they ran out comfortable winners.

Ireland wasn’t the only place where there were penalties of this nature. In the instance below, 22-year-old Welsh referee Ben Connor pings the Scarlets.

Connor doesn’t mention ‘swinging around’ here, instead simply saying, “Side entry and off feet” after Scarlets back row Dan Davis counter-rucks, swings his right leg up and continues on a side angle before falling into Dragons scrum-half Che Hope.

Most people in rugby agree that a little more clean ball for attacks to play with can only be a good thing, so last weekend’s mini-flurry of focus on defenders swinging around rucks is encouraging.