Clip 12 - 2 February

Juggled mark.

Burly Schalk Burger runs and chips ahead into the Sharks' 22 where Patrick Lambie catches the ball and shows with a bent arm that he has called for a mark.

The mark is given.

OK?

Law 18 DEFINITION
To make a mark, a player must be on or behind that player’s 22-metre line. A player with one foot on the 22-metre line or behind it is considered to be ‘in the 22’. The player must make a clean catch direct from an opponent’s kick and at the same time shout “Mark”. A mark cannot be made from a kick-off, or a restart kick except for a drop-out.
A kick is awarded for a mark.

Clean catch is not defined but surely it means without juggling the ball - as distinct from just catching the ball when juggling is allowed.

The referee's angle may have made it hard to see the juggle, but the mark should not have been allowed, bent arm or not.

Originally a player making a fair catch indicated that he was doing so by planting both feet firmly on the ground and raising a toe. Then, to make it more obvious, he was required to call Mark though his toe, anachronistically, was still raised. Then it was no longer necessary to raise the toe and then it was not even necessary to have feet on the ground, let alone have them firmly grounded. But it has been made necessary to make a clean catch.

Giving the air an uppercut to show that you called mark is a recent innovation and is not part of the law. It is to help the referee in noisy circumstances. One wonders if it will not one day be law.




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