Social media critics are wrong - there was nothing illegal about May's flying score

By Jonathan Kaplan

There were some suggestions on social media that Jonny Mays try should have been disallowed for jumping out of the tackle. I'm afraid I don't see any issue - this was a brilliant finish that was quite rightly awarded.

Scoring a try is, on occasion, an act which requires great skill. May improvised with a finish straight out of rugby league, and sometimes you have no choice but to take to the air to score a try. If we disallowed it (and I have no idea under which law you would do so) then we would be oversanitising the game and you run the risk of having to rule out a try every time a player dives for the line, which is clearly ridiculous.

In the same breath, if Luca Sperandio had made the tackle then that would have been fine as well - I don't see it as taking a player out in the air. If a player jumps up in the act of diving to score, I would imagine a common sense approach would prevail in allowing a defender to actually defend. It was a super score that was correctly given.

Two other points Id like to make, on separate issues. Firstly, I thought Owen Farrell was fortunate not to be penalised by Mike Adamson for his late challenge on Stephen Varney. It was avoidable and the try that followed could have been disallowed.

I also have huge sympathy with Jack Willis for his knee injury. My understanding is that World Rugby has outlawed clearouts that target the legs of the jackaller. From what I could see this didn't happen here - although there was a potential side entry by Sebastien Negri, the Italian player. It appeared to be more of a body roll that cuased the injury, which is not illegal.

Originally posted here:
Anatomy of Jonny May's wonder try: Power, agility and audacity combined in one move - Telegraph.co.uk