Quote: Old Feller "I also note the deafening silence about the blatant forward pass in the lead-up to the McGuire try.'"
YOU are missing the point somewhat. The issue is not, for me anyway, that Ben ended up awarding the try as such, it is that he blatantly ignored the clear signal of the man best placed to rule on the try, the man that (arguably) in the rules he should concede to to make that call in the circumstances and decided to overrule him and make the call himself! He doesn't even discuss it with his touch judge, he (supposedly) knows it is a try and just asks in his goal judge, who signalled he agreed with Ben, exactly 'where' it was scored.
As for Danny's try the Smith pass was in directly in front of us and it did look slightly forward to me but ALL of the officials disagreed with my opinion and allowed play to continue. We all know that a forward pass is probably the hardest call to make and they get them wrong both ways and it is a very subjective ruling when you start to bring momentum into it... that is why they are trained and told to look at the hands rather than the flight of the ball.