Quote: downtheante "What makes it more difficult is that the pass is not judged against the ground but against the momentum of the payer passing the ball. You must be able to calculate where the player who passed the ball would be standing if he carried on running at the same speed as when he passed it, at the moment the receiver catches it. If he would be in front of the receiver then it is not forward. This is the "momentum rule" that Stevo often talks about. This is the case with Hall's pass on Saturday - Hall was in front of Raynor when he caught it even though Hall was being tackled at the time. Unfortunately, and I suspect controversially, I believe the same applies to the Salford try. If you view it again you will see that the player receiving the pass would have been behind the passer. The fact that the ball moved two to three yards forward in relation to the ground is irrelevant. Now tell me that a video ref could rule on that without some sort of "Hawk-eye" type technology.'"
It's not where the passing player ends up relative to the catcher that is the issue. It's whether or not at exact point of release the ball is thrown towards (forward pass) or away from (legal pass) the opposition's tryline. This is why Cummings bangs on about refs "watching the direction of the hands". It can be thrown away from the tryline but still end up nearer when caught through momentum as you say which is a legal pass and Hall's pass was like that. It is often the case that the passer remains in front of the ball due to his velocity but that is not the exact measure. It's possible to pass the ball forward and then 'overtake' it as the passer and be in front of the catcher when it's caught. Long looping passes would be where that might happen. That is still a forward pass.