How much time does a player have to play the ball after the ref says "use it"?

Having watched a number of games this season, there seems to be a significant difference in the amount of time a referee will give before he calls 'use it'. Additionally, I think it was last weekend, or maybe the week before, when I finally saw a referee penalise a player for taking to long to play the ball. I really don't know how the rule is being interpreted and if there was any direction (sic) from either World Rugby or the Premiership. Wondering if anyone knows.....

I’m sure it is five seconds after the use it call.

It’s 5 seconds, players always take longer though. It definitely takes longer than 5 seconds to form a human centipede.

It was brought up at a recent PTA meeting though as something to watch out for, hence why some have been actually penalising after 5 seconds.

5 seconds? I thought it was supposed to be something like that.
Still, the other weekend I thought Dan Robson was reading chapters of War and Peace after each 'use it' call.

To be fair, the ref in Dragons v Ospreys told Myler he had twenty seconds to kick a goal today and then let him go for thirty. Maybe they can’t count overly well.

If you actually count very few take 5 seconds. It just seems longer. Seen a few given recently

It surely seems longer. But that is a good idea, counting to time it.

There was a game recently where when the ref called use it, an opposition player starting counting to 5 out loud, he got told off by the ref and the ref told him he would do the counting not anyone else. Think it was Munster V someone this season.

doctor_grey wrote:It surely seems longer.  But that is a good idea, counting to time it.  

sometimes being an aspie geek helps at life

TJ wrote:

doctor_grey wrote:It surely seems longer.  But that is a good idea, counting to time it.  

sometimes being an aspie geek helps at life

Kingshu wrote:There was a game recently where when the ref called use it, an opposition player starting counting to 5 out loud, he got told off by the ref and the ref told him he would do the counting not anyone else. Think it was Munster V someone this season.

difficult one that. It's the old "the ref is the one arbiter on the field" argument but to me if the ref says that he's the one doing the counting then he should count out loud. It would then make it nice and clear that if he gets to 5 then he needs to give a penalty.

the argument will then be when does the ref count and does he count back to 1 or zero. It its 5 secs from when he says use it so the timer should start right after his shout.

Won’t be long till we see shot clock time of thing that they have in basketball I think.

tigertattie wrote:

Kingshu wrote:There was a game recently where when the ref called use it, an opposition player starting counting to 5 out loud, he got told off by the ref and the ref told him he would do the counting not anyone else. Think it was Munster V someone this season.

difficult one that. It's the old "the ref is the one arbiter on the field" argument but to me if the ref says that he's the one doing the counting then he should count out loud. It would then make it nice and clear that if he gets to 5 then he needs to give a penalty.

the argument will then be when does the ref count and does he count back to 1 or zero. It its 5 secs from when he says use it so the timer should start right after his shout.

Won’t be long till we see shot clock time of thing that they have in basketball I think.

Did I read somewhere recently in a match report that a ref actually started counting down out loud to the great annoyance of the scrum-half?  It had the desired effect though.

From IRFU Leprechaun and Mini Rugby (I kid you not):

"The 5 seconds “Use it or Lose it” rule applies.
It is illegal to collapse a maul
Referee/Coach should count down “5, 4, 3, 2, and 1” from moment ruck/maul is formed."

If they do it for Leprechauns, then.....

https://d2cx26qpfwuhvu.cloudfront.net/irfu/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/15162230/IRFU-Mini-and-Leprechaun-Regulations-2019-2020.pdf Page 7