Amid the confusing final five minutes of the Lions-All Blacks decider, where Romain Poite pondered an accidental offsides penalty on Ken Owens and flip-flopped more than John Kerry in the 2004 US presidential election, rugby fans started googling.
Around the world, by their thousands, they sought out the official rules on what constituted an accidental offsides. And in doing so, they brought the bleeding site down.
Even world rugby isn't sure. I Googled the laws and...check the image#NZvsBIL pic.twitter.com/g7rJGRYy4u
— Darryl Sandler (@darrylsandler) July 8, 2017
World rugby website has crashed. How many people are online checking the accidental offside laws? #NZvsBIL #LionsNZ2017
— Tom Edwards (@edwardstom2) July 8, 2017
Was Poite right in the end? Parts of the NZ media are calling it a 'French farce'. But when the smoke cleared, it seems as if Poite correctly interpreted the letter of the law, even if it took him a long time to get there.
Romain Poite was right by World Rugby laws. By the fact that Ken Owens did not try to catch it makes it a scrum not a penalty #LionsNZ2017 pic.twitter.com/8StGDz27Vv
— Will Kelleher (@willgkelleher) July 8, 2017
