Whether you are a follower of rugby or rugby league, what you may be surprised to learn is that the least understood law in either game is the forward pass.
In both codes, the key component of the law is that when a player throws the ball, it must not be thrown in the direction of the opponents’ goal line.
Seems simple, doesn’t it?
Well, not really.
There’s actually a lot more to it than meets the eye, as Quade Cooper learned in the recent union test match against Scotland.
The key thing to understand is that it is the motion of the ball out of the hand which is all important , nothing else should be taken into account.
Why is that? Well, here’s a crash course in relativity for the uninitiated.
Think of yourself and a mate travelling in a car on the highway at 100km/hr in the two front seats. Your mate in the drivers seat throws you a packet of gum.
To do this, because you are directly alongside him, he simply tosses it sideways. Despite the fact that you are moving at 100km/hr, the gum does NOT fly backwards at 100km/hr and hit the back seat.
Why? Relativity. You are both moving forward at the same rate, so the throw is sideways.
Imagine now, you are a hitchhiker watching this from the side of the road.
As the car drives by you, the actual movement of the packet of gum is forward (alongside with everything else in the car) at 100km/hr. If you were measuring it along the ground, it may have travelled as much as 20 metres forwards despite the fact that it was thrown out of the hand sideways.
This is a crucial point that applies in rugby as well.
If a player is sprinting forwards and throws the ball sideways (or even backwards) out of hand, the ball will still end up travelling forwards if compared to the ground no matter what. And that is why the law must be judged according how the ball leaves the hand, not it’s path against the ground.
Watching on TV, not many people would have pulled up Quade Cooper’s pass as forward.
That’s because it was in fact fine. It came out of the hand sideways. His only mistake (if you can call it that) is that he was moving forwards too fast. Which is exactly what we want a player to be doing!
This is also why Northern Hemisphere punters who watch the Super 14 always say it is full of forward passes. It is simply that we play the game at pace in comparison to their leagues.
Need more convincing?
Watch this referees training video made which demonstrates the concept much better than a simple write up can do.
It’s not rocket science, people. But it is relativity!
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mitzter said | December 2nd 2009 @ 6:49am | Report comment
I understand what you are saying and this has been taken into account for quite a while now but many forward passes are NOT from this situation. The Quade Cooper was NOT he was running sideways. And many more are from a standing still 5/8 to forward runners. Again your reasoning doesn’t take into account these (which are often let go and dare i say, the reason northern hemisphere watchers may make that point). The 5/8 forward pass, perfected by carlos spencer and readily taken up by australian teams
Joh4Canberra said | December 2nd 2009 @ 8:19am | Report comment
“In both codes, the key component of the law is that when a player throws the ball, it must not be thrown in the direction of the opponents’ goal line.”
In rugby union at least (I’ve never read the laws of rugby league) the forward pass is actually defined in relation to your opponents’ DEAD BALL line (and not the goal line as you suggested). The reason for this is simple: it accounts for passes in your opponents’ in-goal area. After you have crossed your opponents’ goal line it is still possible to throw a forward pass (i.e. a pass in the direction of your opponents’ dead ball line).
Corey said | December 3rd 2009 @ 1:24am | Report comment
Same in league, but I understand Davo. In RL the commentators always make this statement when a forward pass is ruled.
Joh4Canberra said | December 4th 2009 @ 12:01pm | Report comment
I understood what Davo meant as well
I wasn’t trying to be difficult for the sake of being difficult. I just wanted to point out that a definition of a forward pass in relation to the goal line doesn’t allow for a forward pass in your opponents’ in-goal area (which is a real possibility).
And yes I too have heard RL commentators (Ray Warren?) defining the forward pass in relation to the opponents’ goal line. I wonder if they’ve ever thought about the possibility of throwing a forward pass once you’re already over your opponents’ goal line?
Brett McKay said | December 2nd 2009 @ 8:30am | Report comment
I thought in Cooper’s case, it looked bad because he was tackled or stopped as he threw it sideways, which gave the illusion that it was a mile forward. I might be wrong though, Rugbyfan’s article today about the Almost Grand Slam has helped me forget about the Scotland game…
Sam said | December 2nd 2009 @ 9:52am | Report comment
Yeah this article has it all wrong. In rugby union the ball cannot travel towards the opponents goal-line. Momentum is not taken into account – so unlike you say, the motion of the ball coming out of the hand is not the criteria used to determine forward or not. I hear people say talk about the momentum rule in rugby union but it is a myth – not so sure about league though.
Jameswm said | December 2nd 2009 @ 9:58am | Report comment
Sam you are 100% wrong on that.
The direction that the ball leaves the passer’s hands is all that is important. If it is sideways or backwards it is OK, if it leaves the hands towards the opponent’s dead-ball line it is not.
What happens after it leaves the hands is irrelevant.
Brett McKay said | December 2nd 2009 @ 11:45am | Report comment
spot on James, in fact the NRL (at least) changed their interpretation of a forward pass years ago to that of Rugby’s, so that the main consideration was the direction of the ball from the hands…
Darwin hammer said | December 2nd 2009 @ 11:57am | Report comment
So Cooper didn’t throw a forward pass (despite the evidence of the where the ball was let go and received in respect to the 5 metre line) … yet according to most Australian commentators and fans McCaw in Hong Kong last year most definitely was the recipient of a forward pass – interesting – it is all relative after all
Brett McKay said | December 2nd 2009 @ 12:06pm | Report comment
and Darwin, even Cooper’s pass hasn’t been seen as THE reason the Wallabies lost to Scotland…
Darwin hammer said | December 2nd 2009 @ 2:11pm | Report comment
Yes – it is strange – but also the poor option taking has been glossed over as well … the miracle pass verses the sure thing … esp given Mitchell positioning to receive it was poor … if that try had been scored – then it’s a fair guess to say the floodgates would have opened … and Wallaby supporters – would be bemoaning the Irish result only
Redb said | December 2nd 2009 @ 12:04pm | Report comment
In terms of science in sport.
The AFL is developing with Sherrin a microchip that will be inserted into the ball to track movement.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/afl-leads-way-with-new-tracking-technology/story-e6frf9jf-1225805934930
Most of the technology is for training aids but its uses can apply to other areas within the game I think like whether the ball travels between the posts, etc. Heaps of possibilities.
However, it strikes me that if if a rugby ball had the microchip and each player also had a microchip on their jersey they could track the forward movement of the ball on a grid set-up which a video ref would monitor.
Redb
Pippinu said | December 2nd 2009 @ 12:15pm | Report comment
Maybe put microchips in the brains of some players?
rugbyguy said | December 2nd 2009 @ 12:15pm | Report comment
the key thing is that when the ball is released the pass is not directed forward, the actaul definition by law is not all that important, Referees take into account the relative motion of the player who threw the pass so thats what matters.
All those people out htere who complain about these kind of things should get over it, same with the breakdown, its only illegal if the ref says it is, player like McCaw, george smith, schalk burger all push the laws until the ref steps in, the thing that makes them so good is that once they get penalised for skirting the rules they stop it. Yes it is cheating but thats how rugby is these days, the rules have changed so much every ref has their own interpretation of some of the more complex laws and the best players will take advantage.
We saw the Italian scrum destroy the All Blacks a few weeks ago, on replaying the match it became quite clear the Italian prop was using every trick in the book, driving in, up and even binding with his arm around the the neck of one af the All Blacks front row, Nemiaa Tialata was eventually sent off because the All Black scrum was such a mess!
After the match the IRB chief of referees Paddy O’Brian officially apoligised for the referees mistake in blaming the all black and not spotting the italians dirty tricks. The thing is the italian prop was only doing his job, doing everything he could to disrupt the All Black scrum, pushing the boundaries of what he could get away with, had the ref penalised him early im sure the srucm would have settled down but instead the ref missed everything and the Italian grew more bold as the match progressed, getting sidetracked here, point is until we have robots for refs that control each game identically then players will push the laws in search of any edge over the competition.
LeftArmSpinner said | December 2nd 2009 @ 12:26pm | Report comment
DAvo, more people should read this article. well explained.
anopinion said | December 2nd 2009 @ 2:17pm | Report comment
If I hold the ball out in front and flick it sideways or backwards to a player who is in front of me, what should the ruling be by law? If I do not release the ball but rather hand it off to a player in front of me is it a penalty against me?
Brett McKay said | December 2nd 2009 @ 2:25pm | Report comment
Anopinion, I’d imagine it’d be a penalty for offside if you just hand off, and in your first question by law it would either be a scrum (forward pass) or penalty (offside or deliberate forward pass), depending on what mood the ref’s in on the day…