After safety, the advantage law is the most important law of the game. When used well, it allows the game to flow, prevents defending players from delaying play by committing violations, and promotes positive play.
What does the law say?
From law 1: Definitions – “Advantage is to allow play to proceed to the advantage of the team which has not committed an offence or infringement.”
The laws also contain a range of mentions that the referee should consider/allow advantage play.
This sentence is deceptively simple. Here’s how it works in practice.
Applying advantage
If a player commits an infringement of the laws, but the other team has, gets, or is in a position to get control of the ball, then the referee waits to see what happens before blowing the whistle to stop play. It may turn out that despite the infringement, the non-offending team can do better for themselves by playing on than by getting the penalty or changeover that would normally be given.
How long can advantage last?
An advantage play can last as long as play continues and the non-offending team has possession. However, advantage cannot persist past any stoppage in play, including a tag. If a player is legally tagged, the referee must stop play and the advantage ends – what happens next depends on whether advantage was gained.
Ending the advantage
Advantage can end in one of four ways:
- The non-offending team scores a try.
- The non-offending team has made progress down the field and is doing better than they are likely to have done if the referee had blown for the infringement. In this case, the referee calls “advantage over”.
- The non-offending team loses possession or is tagged before the advantage is over, or the referee considers there is clearly no possibility they will make progress. In this case, the referee will blow and award the original infringement.
- The non-offending team commits an infringement of their own. In this case, the referee will normally blow and award the first infringement (but see “multiple infringements” below).
Whilst playing advantage, the referee should be constantly considering if a sufficient advantage has been gained and ready to call “advantage over”. They should be aware of the tag count when considering this: a team making a 15m gain on tag 1 is probably sufficient, but if the team is on tag 4 and gets tagged 15m in front of the offence, they would probably prefer to go back for the penalty. If it is very borderline, you can ask the team what they would prefer, but this option should be used very sparingly.
Calls and signals
There are no official hand signals or calls for advantage in tag rugby. I personally like to borrow from rugby union and raise my arm to horizontal pointing at the non-offending team, but this is (for now) a minority. The usual verbal call is “Advantage [colour of non-offending team] [infringement]”, but you may leave out the colour and/or the infringement if it is clear from the context what they are. Calling “advantage over” is also important, so that a team does not try a high-risk play when they think they have a penalty to come back to.
It is very important to indicate clearly that advantage is being played, so that both teams are clear that you have seen an infringement and have not missed or ignored it.
Special cases
If a team kicks ahead whilst they have an advantage, play can continue whilst the referee waits to see who reclaims the ball. As a general rule, the referee will call advantage over if the kicking team reclaims possession, and will call play back for the infringement if the offending team regains possession. However, especially on advantage that would only be a changeover, the referee can call advantage over if the ball is kicked a long distance ahead, the implication being that making that much distance is worth giving up the ball.
Where the referee is playing advantage for a forward pass or knock-on, and a player from the non-offending team is tagged, this is advantage over and zero tag. You cannot award a zero tag from a penalty infringement.
If the offending team has committed two or more infringements and the referee is playing advantage, they should award whichever penalty is better for the non-offending team. If unsure which penalty the non-offending team would prefer, the referee should ask them.
Advanced
This section contains my personal views and interpretations and is not intended to be a formal interpretation of the laws. Feel free to disagree (or agree) using the comments below.
What laws can I play advantage for?
There is some debate over whether advantage can be applied for any breach of the laws, or whether some breaches must be called straight away. Because a lot of laws explicitly say “the referee should consider/allow advantage play”, some interpretations are that any law not containing these words should be called without allowing for advantage. My personal viewpoint is that the referee should allow the game to be played in preference to stopping it, and should play advantage whenever it is reasonably possible to do so. However, even if the non-offending team has the ball or a chance to get it, you should definitely stop the game where:
- There is a safety risk in allowing play to continue.
- You intend to send a player off (red card)
- There has been a serious contact offence, or a player is down and potentially injured
Multiple infringements
Where team 1 commits an infringement and team 2 commits a further infringement during the advantage period, there is no indication in the laws, and a lack of consensus amongst referees, on how to handle this. There are three broad schools of thought:
- Always call the first infringement
- Call whichever infringement is “more serious”, e.g. a penalty infringement is more serious than a changeover infringement, a contact infringement is more serious than a technical infringement such as offside, and so on.
- Call the first infringement, unless the second infringement is a serious or safety-related infringement.
I personally tend towards 1, but I don’t know what the best approach is. Thoughts welcome in the comments.
Try on advantage
It occasionally arises that a team scores a try during an advantage but it might be better for them to have a penalty, maybe if they are 2 points down, it’s in the last minute or even last play, and they score a single-point try which isn’t enough to tie the game. The referee can go back for the penalty in this case – though it’s best to offer the scoring team the option.
“Killing the ball”
There is a school of thought that if a player knocks-on, and then touches or grounds the ball again, they have “killed the ball” and the referee must blow for the knock-on. This is not supported in the laws. If a player who knocks-on wishes to stop play, they would need to regain possession of the ball, such as by picking it up, or take some other action that means the non-offending team cannot gain any advantage. Tapping the ball or knocking-on again does not demonstrate control of the ball, and the non-offending team is still entitled to pick it up.