If you turn to face your own sticks then, wherever you hurl the ball 'forwards' ie towards the oppositions try line, must by definition not be a forward pass eh?

After all this debate I'm starting to feel a modicum of sympathy for referees.

I know what you mean, I always thought that if a player who passed the ball passed it on the attacking 10 metre line and the recieving player recieved it 10.1metres away from the line it was a good pass, likewise if he recieved it 9.9 metres away from the try line it was a forward pass. But after a discussion on another board although technically correct if the passing player is stood still it is completely different when players are moving. And my conclusion is what you came out with.

But I don't why we can't have VR on forward passes, as it isn't the direction of the ball but the players hands that is the critical thing.

It's simple really - do away with the momentum rule and all this goes away. I am sure that all teams take advantage of the fact that the referee/linesman has to make an instant decision and that if he doesn't make that decision instantly there is no way in the rules to overrule any subsequent score. It is clear from video playbacks that some tries which rely upon the momentum rule are clearly forward passes. So if the rule was simply stated to be that the ball must travel backwards relative to the ground all this goes away.

Either that or stay as we are because any talk of micro chips and video analysis of the position of the hands etc., etc is nonsense.

Electronics in the ball is going to be trialled in Australia. The "chip" identifies whether a ball is released in a backwards direction. If it does a light/alarm will be triggered in the VR booth/4th Official area. They will then notify the referee. Advising the referee directly was deemed unacceptable as the syetm will "always be on" and a player throwing the ball forward to the scrumhalf for a scrum will activate it. gpsports.com/gpsports_website/?c ... ws&item=52

Electronics in the ball is going to be trialled in Australia. The "chip" identifies whether a ball is released in a backwards direction. If it does a light/alarm will be triggered in the VR booth/4th Official area. They will then notify the referee. Advising the referee directly was deemed unacceptable as the syetm will "always be on" and a player throwing the ball forward to the scrumhalf for a scrum will activate it. gpsports.com/gpsports_website/?c ... ws&item=52