I'm not against flat passing. I marvel at the accuracy and skill many players have. However there are far too many forward passes that get missed every week and just think changing the rule from a scrum to a penalty would be more appropriate to emphasise this base rule of our game. Or is there any better way of detecting what is the hardest of our technical rules to judge?.

Suprise suprise an anti Leeds post, why not just ban Leeds players from passing the ball full stop

Pretty much spot on.
Also peaple are so obsessed with the lines on the field. If you are running at speed and pass the ball to a player 2-3m behind you the ball will appear to go forward in relation to the ground. This is momentum. Hardback era pass to hall was tipicle of this on Sunday. Hall was always behind hardaker.

Rollin Thunder - tongue in cheak, yes. However Leeds play very flat and fast which has to be admired and because of that they have a greater chance of this occurring. Its a very fine line. Please read the rest of the posts on this thread. I don't want to stifle creative moves, just throwing an idea out there to cut down forward passes generally.

If the sanction for a forward pass was a penalty, then the number of forward pass decisions would decline, as refs would rightly be more reluctant to make a decision that is more of a punishment to the defending team.

Not sure a penalty is enough of a sanction, maybe a warning and potential sin-bin for repeat offenders would stop this terrible crime. The RFL should also consider bans for those that continually pass the ball forward so they are discouraged from doing so, especially if they do it on purpose.

Ferocious Aardvark - yes I know and you're almost certainly right. But if we can't find a better way of detecting them more easily we should still have a harsher decision against the attacking side than just a scrum.

Flat passes are exciting and can lead to great trys. Forward passes can lead to trys that shouldn't be given (although I've heard Stevo say something like 'it doesn't matter, that move deserved a try' on numerous occasions). A forward pass should always matter, especially leading to a try, no matter how good the rest of the move was.

There must be hundreds of times I have witnessed the most obvious blatant forward passes only to watch the game later at home and realise that it was actually OK. [i(By the way, when doing this yourself use your own judgement, don't take Pinky & Perkys word for it.)[/i Forward passes must be one of the most difficult things to referee and to be honest I'm amazed that they get it right as often as they do.

BUT, it shouldn't be so difficult to miss an offside when the receiving player is in front of the passer when the ball is passed. These happen very frequently and whilst they may or may not be spotted as a forward pass, I can't ever remember seeing this given as a penalty given for offside.

Do you feel the same toward technically incorrect play the balls?

Him - if you mean no attempt to get to your feet and roll it back with the foot then yes. However moving off the mark at ptb is more annoying. I know it happens and all teams do it a bit but some really take the mick.

One instance last weekend (sorry Leeds fans) a leeds player held onto a defenders arm trying to milk a holding down penalty but was waved away. He then rolled over the top of the tackling player by a metre or two (allegedly clearing the ruck that he himself was slowing down) and then took ANOTHER couple of steps forward before playing the ball.

Anyway, back to forward passing and any ideas that might actually help cut them down....

So if a player does make an attempt but still doesn't technically play the ball correctly then that's ok? How many incorrect, and so quicker, play the balls lead to tries? And why isn't that such as big an issue as forward passes?

Him - good point well made (nice loaded question btw). However an unseen forward pass gives the attacking side a far greater advantage than an incorrect ptb.

Why does it? Both provide the attacking side an advantage. I don't particularly see one as a greater advantage than the other. I think you are vastly overestimating the benefit to the attacking side of a forward pass.

Here's a question, watching the Widnes - Wakefield game. I didn't think Kevin Browns try should of been allowed as Ah Van threw the ball backwards, but as it was thrown Phelps was in front of him, he then ran back & offloaded it.

My question is should phelps not be given offside?

Are there? Or are there just far too many Rugby League fans who don't know the rules? I believe the latter - week after week I hear the s opposite me in Headingley's South Stand calling out passes which are clearly not against the rules - rules which do, admittedly, require a rudimentary understanding of physics to comprehend.