‘Antoine Dupont’s fault’ – Premiership teams exploit loophole in ‘farcical’ exchange as Jacques Nienaber also enters discussion
Kick-tennis during Premiership clash between Bath and Gloucester.
A clip between Premiership rivals Bath and Gloucester has gone viral, which has led to calls for a loophole to be closed by World Rugby.
The West Country sides went head-to-head in an otherwise entertaining and fierce contest on Sunday, but there was one particular moment which caused a debate, as they got engaged in a spot of kick-tennis.
That, of course, is not necessarily unusual, but this one was particularly strange with both sets of packs effectively ending up on opposite sides of the field.
The law
They exploited a law which enables players to move towards the catcher providing they stay still, are outside 10 metres of the recipient and the opposition player has ran five metres with the ball.
As a result, individuals from both teams simply did not move but ended up being close to where the ball landed, allowing them to put pressure on the kicker.
That could be perceived to be a good thing but, on this occasion, it was not as there were no opportunities to counter-attack and, to be honest, very little chance to do anything other than kick it straight back.
The rather comical passage of play finally ended when a kick was partially charged down by Bath and immediately put the Gloucester players onside.
It landed in the arms of wing Jonny May, who collected and set up an attack for the Cherry and Whites, which led to a good scoring opportunity.
Bath very in tune with the Dupont loophole that states you can advance from an offside position once a catcher has travelled five metres.
When Will Muir finally does get a charge-down, though, Gloucester benefit from the ricochet.
Please can we close the loophole? It's trash. pic.twitter.com/PZAao1Spvk
— Charlie Morgan (@CharlieFelix) January 7, 2024
Adjectives such as ‘farcical’ and ‘stupid’ were used to describe the exchange, while journalist Charlie Morgan urged the governing bodies to take action.
“Please can we close the loophole? It’s trash,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, before adding that it’s “Antoine’s fault.”
Morgan was referring to French star Antoine Dupont, who first found this way of putting teams under pressure without having to be put onside by the kicker.
Nienaber’s thoughts
Former Springboks head coach Jacques Nienaber also got involved in the discussion, stating that high ball in play time does not necessarily mean entertaining rugby.
“And this is what people don’t understand…..this episode of rugby is more than 1 min ball in play with nothing happening except the ball flying through the air. People thinking high ball in play = entertaining rugby,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, respected analyst EK Rugby added: “Became farcical at the end there where both packs had swapped halves because there was no incentive to get back and run the ball.”
Others felt that it wasn’t necessarily a rugby thing as a whole, but simply an incident that would only happen in the north, with one joking: “That was the most northern hemisphere rugby clip I have ever seen.”
Despite the negativity surrounding it, another excellent analyst, Sam Larner, had a different take on the matter.
Larner quite rightly pointed out that ‘boring’ things happen in other sports, but they are not criticised to this extent.
“Nobody will claim this is the best rugby can be,” he wrote. “However, football is allowed to have boring periods without them being pulled out as examples of everything wrong with football.”
READ MORE: Tom de Glanville double helps Bath edge Gloucester who blow late chance at the Rec
