Charge down : Sat Sep 13, 2014 7:59 am
Honestly couldn't have given a monkeys about last nights result but immediately the "Charge down" happened and most of the commentators (and cummins iirc) said it was a charge down I couldn't quite get it out of my head.Had a sneaky peak on Saints board and noticed a lot of referral to this charge down that it cost them the game and it was a bad decision.
Now I'm not going to say that I know the rule inside out but what I can't quite get my head round is this.
At no point did the defender raise his arms, jump or anything else in fact to try and "charge down" the ball. It just hit him on the head.
All he did was come up with the defensive line, so what is he supposed to do?
I've seen a couple of mentions that the defender is advancing towards the kicker, well I would have thought that's exactly what you want him to do to "Tackle" him.
What happens if he doesn't kick it? Is the defender supposed to stand still?
So as I said, not sure what the rule is, but if it is that if your advancing towards the player (so I'm not going to say kicker as how do you know that he deffo is going to kick it) then it is classed as a charge down then I'm against it.
Surely the defender should have to be interpreted as making an attempt to charge down the ball from a kick not just advancing towards the player?
Anyway, won't lose any sleep, just thought I'd bring it up.
Edit
Oh and yes, it is mentioned on other boards that players were "downtown" at the ptb.
Just had another thought, what about players kicking the ball near the touchline, hitting the defender and it going out. Surely head and feed to the attacker based on the "charge down" rule?
Defender is advancing towards kicker so it's a charge down even though all he could be doing is attempting a tackle?
Clarification needed guys as I think it's very dangerous (or stupid) if the rule is that the defender only needs to be advancing to attacker for it to be classed as a charge down.