Should Van der Merwe's first try have stood?

[Workingman]

When I was playing if you were tackled and the ball touched the ground it was a ruck and the ball had to come out using feet. The tackler could not handle the ball and both should roll away. An offload was only allowed if the ball had not touched the ground.

Yesterday the Scottish player was tackled and, with the ball in hand, it touched the ground, he then rolled over and did the offload to Van de Merwe.

Only one of the experts mentioned that it "might have been" against the rules.

[cromwell]

How about his second, the 60 metre run? It looked to me like he touched the flag before he grounded the ball.
Scotland stilll deserved to win though.

[Workingman]

Hard one to call.

The flag pole is only an indicator, it is not part of the touch line so it does not make him out of bounds. So long as his feet or any other part of his body do not touch the ground (out of bounds) before he touches the ball down he should be OK.

However, I have seen some such tries disallowed.

Agree about the Scotland win.