I bow to your superior intellect & spectacular vocabulary.

PS: It was FORWARD. You LOST, AGAIN. Get over it,

7-3!

spot on great post

Even bigger vocabulary (just!) than I first thought.

Are you looking forward to 6 weeks off lessons?

agreed

PLEASE - DO NOT FEED THE TROLLS!!

No, that's not how the legality of passes is judged.

Going back a good few seasons ago does anyone remember the Camera that sky used to use that went on a track and followed the players down the field?

why dont they bring that camera back, that used to follow the player with the ball and was directly in line with the ball. this will surley show if the ball is traveling forward or not from a pass.

The simplest way of using the VR to 'judge' forward passes would be to have a basic 'Hawkeye'-style system that measured the velocity of the ball. If the speed of the ball's movement towards the opponents try-line increases after it's released, it's a forward pass. Still not a massively simple solution, but it does take all ambiguity/subjectivity out of it.

Whilst I agree that would be the [ipiece de resistance[/i and solve the problem for good even without that technology I still think that the VR should be consulted, at least as a trial. Passes such as the one against us in the CC tie against Salford (not televised I know) should not be allowed to stand.

As an alternative to your hawkeye approach the existing technology Andy Gray uses to measure the speed of shots in football could maybe be used (is that Hawkeye? - don't think it is). Surely it would be possible to adapt that technology to project the speed of the passing player. A line could be 'drawn' on screen exactly perpendicular to each touchline passing through the ball at point of release. This line could then be projected forward towards the tryline frame by frame at the speed of the passing player (that being calculated in the same way that the shot speed is calculated in football). Provided the ball never crossed in front of the projected line before being caught then the pass would be deemed legal. Would work better for longer passes and not so good for shorter perhaps.

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.

This is a great idea - not sure the technology would be within the grasp of RL.

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.

Its all to do with cost as well. Who's going to fund it ?



How come we can go to the video ref for on side off side when you've scored a try from a kick but not for a foreward pass ?