French star Louis Bielle-Biarrey had fans desperately questioning their own knowledge of rugby at the weekend when he sets wing partner Damen Penauld up for a try against Exeter in the Investec Champions Cup.
With the ball having bounced towards the edge of the field, Bielle-Biarrey clearly stepped onto the touchline to notch it ahead with his right boot. Penauld, being the talented try-scorer he is, bounced upon the rolling ball to take Bordeaux further into the lead. Upon review, many fans believed that the score would be wiped off since Bielle-Biarrey’s boot was quite clearly in touch – but this is where it gets interesting.
World Rugby law 18.2d. states: ‘The ball is not in touch or touch-in-goal if a player, who is in touch, kicks or knocks the ball, but does not hold it, provided it has not reached the plane of touch.’
So, a player can have a foot on the touchline and kick the ball as long as the ball doesn’t cross the plane of touch. This means that although Bielle-Biarrey was indeed outside the field of play, the ball wasn’t because it hadn’t crossed the line and he had not handled it.
Pied clairement en touche non ? 😅 pic.twitter.com/s5KXUPIlYI
— Moacévic 🪽 (@moacevic) January 11, 2025
The match finished 17-69 as Bordeaux continued their impressive European form and Exeter failed to secure yet another result. Bielle-Biarrey got on the scoresheet twice, while Penaud collected a hattrick.
The 28-year-old Penaud also toyed with the home players’ hearts, minds and ankles all afternoon, but no more so when he initially declined to score his third try, electing instead to put teammate Matthieu Jalibert under the posts.
Penaud, for all the money in the world, looked like he was about to touch down in the corner for his hat trick after gassing past the flailing Exeter defence. But with no one in front of him, the speedster audaciously threw a 20-metre pass inside to his fly-half who then stepped another Chiefs player to extend the lead.
Bordeaux doing Bordeaux things.
Penaud and Jalibert. pic.twitter.com/tqz0dLmYj7
ADVERTISEMENT— Murray Kinsella (@Murray_Kinsella) January 12, 2025
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Following the match Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter told the BBC:
“We had our moments and we had enthusiasm in attack and we’ve created some good scores, but can we really say we had a system or a process that looked like it was really challenging Bordeaux on a regular basis?
“I’ve probably got to say no, and we’ve got to get through this. We’ve got to train our way through it, and we’ve got to take a lot of responsibility because we’ve got to get the guys believing in it and doing it regularly and trusting it and trusting each other.”
In this episode of Walk the Talk, Jim Hamilton chats with double World Cup winner Damian de Allende about all things Springbok rugby, including RWC2023 and the upcoming Ireland series. Watch now for free on RugbyPass TV
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