This has got to be the worst rule in Rugby League. Its impossible to referee and causes the most confusion and resentment amongst supporters. Like all subjective rules it belongs to Union.

Why cant we have a simple rule which states a forward pass is any pass that goes forward from the the position it was thrown.

There is no momentum rule. Stevo made it up.

There is no problem with the forward pass ruling in rugby league. As mentioned the momentum rule isn't actually used, they look for the direction the ball leaves the hands, ignoring the momentum of the player.

Obviously there is an adjustment for the minor axis difference at Headingly, meaning they add an extra 45 degrees of acceptable angle when a Leeds player is involved.

Firstly there is a momentum rule(I also assumed Stevo had made it up til I read the rulebook)
Secondly, dont you think the referee looking at the direction of the hands is a rubbish way of determining it. The best placed guy to check forward passes is the linesman-why dont they give him the job of calling it.

The number of tries being scored from forward passes and the acceptable angle appears to be increasing year on year. Its getting like American football.
p.s. Saints are the worst culprit

Because nearly every pass on the run would be then classed as a forward pass due to the laws of physics.

There is no 'momentum rule'. However, it is accepted that due to player momentum, the ball might travel forwards in relation the the ground, even though a running player has passed it backwards in relation to himself and the receiving player.

If you were sprinting flat out and tried to pass it backwards in relation to the point on the ground the ball leaves your hands, you'd literally have to hurl it behind you.

Except at Leeds, where they seem to forget the 'backwards' element of the rules.

The International Laws stateThe direction of a pass is relative to the player making it and not to the actual path relative to the ground. A player running towards his opponents’ goal line may throw the ball towards a colleague who is behind him but because of the thrower’s own momentum the ball travels forward relative to the ground. This is not a forward pass as the thrower has not passed the ball forward in relation to himself. This is particularly noticeable when a running player makes a high, lobbed pass.'"

Brilliant.

....we want to see players running forward at full speed be able to pass to a supporting team mate your "rule" would prevent this ever happening. I prefer the rules as they have always been (and currently are).

How would this prevent this ever happening? Not every pass made on the run is forward'"

'"

Because we live in a universe governed by the laws of physics and the RFL doesn't have the power to repeal them.

Plus it would be stupid to have a player pass to another player behind him, but have it ruled a forward pass.

'"

The problem may be partly caused by mis-use of the word 'momentum'. The momentum of the running player (mass multiplied by velocity) has nothing to do with it. To be excessively pedantic, whether a pass is forward or not should be judged in a Lagrangian frame of reference. A spectator on the touchline sees things in an Eulerian frame of reference (Google either term for a full explanation). Think of two boats floating down a river one of them slightly in front of the other. If you throw a ball from the first boat to the second boat then from the point of view of people in the boats the ball always goes backwards. From the point of view of an observer on the river bank the ball may go either forwards or backwards depending on the speed at which the river is flowing. The best independent judge is someone in a third boat travelling at the same velocity as the first two. On the rugby field the best judge is the referee who ought to be running at the same velocity as the two players involved.

That's ridiculous. I knew the RFL shouldn't have let Rod Findlay go to Gateshead.

£5 says that if they could, they would, in order to be 'innovative'