Goal from mark

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A goal from mark is an antiquated scoring move in rugby union. It occurred when a player "marked" the ball by making a fair catch and shouting "mark". From this position the player cannot be tackled. The player then has the option of a free kick, which can be taken as a place, drop, or tap kick.

In the modern game, a goal cannot be scored from a free kick, but in the past the reward for scoring a "goal from mark" was three points - it was a mode of scoring distinct from the drop goal even when the latter was worth four points. It was seldom seen for a number of reasons: The kicking team would have had to make the mark comfortably within range of the opponents' goal, usually implying a gross error on the part of a defending player. The player making the mark would presumably have considered a drop goal attempt less likely to succeed than goal from the mark. The defending team were allowed to advance as far as the mark, meaning that the kick had to be attempted from still further away, and were moreover permitted to charge the attempted kick (as a penalty kick may not be). A place kick could be attempted under obsolete laws that disallowed a charge attempt until the ball, in possession of a placer, was allowed to touch the ground; otherwise the ball had to be drop-kicked. The mode of scoring was valid until the 1970s and, though very rare, was not unknown even then.

An example of this occurred in the Oxford and Cambridge Varsity Match