Rugby: Thumbs up for forward pass

Richie McCaw. Photo / Getty Images

'You watch the game at the moment; the number of tries being scored from forward passes is ridiculous. I just wonder what the guys are doing on the sidelines.

"It is diabolical. It doesn't make sense. I am asking why all the time. They are trying to get better. I don't think there is an 'us and them'.

"They are all trying to do a decent job but they are making mistakes. The mistakes that were made in Brisbane - I don't necessarily want to pick on Stu - but I wonder if fatigue was to blame."

The speaker isn't, as it sounds, an angry rugby fan. It's All Black coach Graham Henry.

He's talking about the plethora of forward passes which some say are ruining many games these days. It came to a head in round 15 last month - with the Reds-Crusaders match blighted by several, with more found in other games in the weekend of May 27-29.

The "Stu" Henry mentioned is New Zealand's favourite love-to-hate referee Stu Dickinson - long regarded by many Kiwis as a pedantic official tragically in love with his whistle.

Dickinson refereed the Brisbane match and observers other than Henry have since made allusions to his ability to keep up with the play. Dickinson will not be refereeing in the World Cup.

However, regardless of the identity (or fitness) of referees and assistants, forward passes have been spotted aplenty in Super Rugby this year - perhaps the greatest frequency yet, given the howls of complaint coming from spectator ranks.

With the World Cup just around the corner (and memories of a certain undetected French forward pass in Cardiff in 2007 still raw), the penchant for referees and their assistants to miss players passing forward has come in for plenty of stick.

Sanzar referees' boss Lyndon Bray acknowledges that there have been some occasions this season where forward passes have been delivered but not detected. He also mentioned round 15 of Super rugby.

"We [the referees] had a talk about that one," said Bray. "We had a very, very good re-focus on what happened that weekend. There were a lot of forward passes."

But Bray also said - and it'll be a surprise to some - that some forward passes are permitted. In fact, some forward passes which fans complain go undetected have, in fact, been noticed. But they aren't illegal.

Bray said many rugby followers did not know the law governing the pass. If a pass is directed backwards, it is not a forward pass; not even if it is subsequently caught by the recipient ahead of where it was delivered.

"That's to take account of the laws of physics," said Bray. "If someone is running fast and delivers a pass backwards - say, a long pass out to the winger - the ball will often drift to a spot ahead of where the passer passed it. That's physics.

"But if the ball is directed forwards by the passer - that is a forward pass."

Spectators at a ground or watching on TV often react to the flight of the ball - carried forward either by momentum; wind; or even the spin imparted by the passer. But, as long as the ball is propelled backwards when it leaves the passer's hands, it is not a forward pass.

Bray said the commonly held perception that some referees told their assistants not to bother alerting them to forward passes but focus instead on other infringements (like at the breakdown; offside) was not true.

"All of our guys have a collective approach to how they work as a team," said Bray, "and that will get more solid as they get more used to working as a team in the Super rugby environment." Referees, with the lines they ran close to the ball carriers, were in a better position to call forward passes than linesmen anyway.

However, it is the "clear and obvious" philosophy of Super rugby refereeing that may be the root of the problem.

Bray said that referees were instructed to halt the game only if forward passes were "clear and obvious. That is our defining philosophy," said Bray.

"The Australians did a test a few years ago that illustrated it perfectly. They drew lines on the pitch and threw passes; showing that the ball actually did go forward even when it was delivered legally.

Tight and rush defences mean overhead and looping passes are more commonly seen and skirt close to the forward pass law.

The forward offload, delivered when the ball carrier has come through a tackle and slips the ball to a runner in close, can also be difficult to detect.

"Our 'clear and obvious' philosophy means the referee and the assistants need to be crystal clear it has gone forward. If not, they shouldn't be calling it. I would prefer not to call a marginal forward pass and stop the game; particularly if it later emerges that it wasn't forward."

Maybe so, and you have to applaud the let-the-game-go-on intention, but ... we all know a whole team of 2007 All Blacks who may not agree with this philosophy.