Please explain tackles to me?

Question

When is it okay for the tackler to pick up the dropped ball? This is what confuses me. Sometimes I see the tackler gets up and picks up the ball, othertimes he just stays on the ground and like 3 people come in and form a ruck. I dont get it. I was playing yesterday, tackled someone and we were both on the ground, and I dove over his body to pick up the ball but the coach called a penalty.

Answer 1

It's hard to tell from that description, but I know you can't "play the ball from the ground" - so if you were still kind of on the ground, not standing up on two feet, the ref might've considered it playing from the ground and called you on that.

Answer 2

ok this is how it is. If you get tackled but you only get tripped up or the tackler does not hold you down, or hold you on the gound you must let go of the ball and while getting up you can pick up the ball and run. But if you get tackled and the player gets a good tackle on you, and hold you down, or is on top of you (holding on to you in some way) then you must release the ball and not play with it on the ground. If either your knees, or body is on the ground, DO NOT TOUCH THE BALL. This WILL result in you getting stepped on or cleated at a higher level of rugby. Also if a ruck is formed and your position in not a scrum half, dont touch the ball. A ruck is formed when two members are linked either by their shoulders or some other crazy contraption. Rugby is amazing and takes a while to learn. Its a great game, and i can already tell ur learning to love it. Keep it up!!!!!

Answer 3

Maybe you dived over the ruck which is illegal.