In Rugby, what is 'Advantage'?

Question

In very simple terms please.

Answer 1

It's like the others have said, territorial or tactical advantage must be gained by the team with the advantage. There's a debate about changing the Advantage laws now, see the link

Answer 2

Brain Habana is an advantage!

Answer 3

If a foul is committed by one team, e.g. knock on forward pass, high tackle and the team which ends up with the ball after the foul is the non-guilty party and are in an attacking position, the referee can decided to let play continue .

Play then continues for a short period of time to see if that team gains an advantage from the situation. If he deems that the team is no better off he will blow his whistle and bring them back for a scrum, penalty etc to the place where the original offence occured.

Its easier to see from a worked example:

South Africa are 10 meters from their own line and in posession of the ball going forward, the England forwards are coming onto them so they pass the ball to one of their players running up the outside wing. The South African player on the wing fumbles the ball and knocks it forward.

A quick thinking english forward who was running in for the tackle picks it up. (England are now in an attacking position)

Due to the South African error the rules of the game specify an England scrum at the place where the knock on occurred.

However the South African defence is taken by surprise by the error and there is a possibility that the England forward can run the last 10 meters and touch down for a try.

Therefore the referee decides to play the advantage to England and allows play to continue.

If the player runs forward and touches down for a try then England have benefited from the advantage rule and the srum  is cancelled.

If the player where to run straight into a tackle and England made no ground in a short phase of play, the referree would blow his whistle and pull both teams back for the scrum at athe place where the knock on occurred.

If the referee had simply stopped the play then he may have deprived England of the points from the resulting opportunity to score a try.

Answer 4

The first two answers are very good, so you don't need to hear it again from me. I'll just say that most games will allow play to continue for a short time after a penalty, so if you follow other sports, you might get a better idea of how it works. In hockey, play will continue until the offending team touches the puck, so the non-offending team has a chance to take advantage of the other teams mistake. In American football the play continues, and afterwords the non offending team can accept or decline the penalty based on which is better for them. Hope that helps.

Answer 5

advantage,being able to play the game=springbokes,

disadvantage being c**p at it like

england.

Answer 6

If one team breaks a rugby rule by being offside etc, the other team gets a short time of advantage indicated by the refereee sticking his arm out. This allows the passage of play to continue for a short time to see if the opposite side has more advantage in continuing the play, than if the whistle was blown immediately for a penalty.

Answer 7

"advantage" is getting the opposition food poisoned the night before the rugby world cup final like south africa did v new zealand in 1995.

Answer 8

Habana is only an advantage if the oppostion throw an intercept pass.