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Sun 2 Sep 2018 | 01:56
Players advised to buy lottery tickets after these blatant forward passes

8
Comments

If the referee didn't see it, did it really happen? That may well apply here, with two passes from the latest round of Mitre 10 Cup play going unnoticed. Waikato and Auckland both benefitted from officials somehow ignoring the flight of the ball, or more importantly, the position of the hands.

Tries didn't come from them, but they certainly looked blatant enough to call. 

And while the general approach these days seems to be that it must be 'clear and obvious', these two did certainly appear to be both clear, and obvious. 

In the second example it led to some lovely offloads from both Melani Nanai and Jordan Trainor, so on a positive note, there's that. 

If nothing else, they cancel one another out, as each side got away with one each. 

Waikato went on to win the match 35-17. 

ALSO WATCH: The Top 5 Worst Passes of All Time

Posted By: Grant Constable

8 Comments

  • breakaway
    2:16 AM 10/09/2018

    Agreed. The first one is not forward pass at all. It's deceptive because the passer kept moving back after passing a ball that was, as you say, flat at worst. The receiver started in front but was in line with the fair pass when he took it.
    The second one looked forward out of the hands. The video suggests that both ref and touchie had players blocking their line of sight when the ball was let go. Not a shocker, but forward nonetheless.

  • drg
    12:01 PM 08/09/2018

    Weirdo....

    ...I think you're right though!

  • rdump0
    8:18 PM 04/09/2018

    Call me a weirdo if you want, but for the first incident I actually went on to measure on my screen the position of both players compared to their respective distances to the 10 and 22m lines.
    When releasing the ball, the player (more precisely the ball) is at less than 5m of the 10m line (27% of the 18m between both lines). The flyhalf catching the ball is at more than 5.4m of the same line (30% of the distance). So the pass is at worst flat, but I am quite positive it went backwards.

    I agree it looks like a forward pass at first sight because the receiver is in front of the ball at the moment the ball is thrown, but he is running 4 steps backwards to catch the ball while the ball is flying.

  • drg
    5:19 PM 03/09/2018

    Very true! Sooner we accept infringements can and will be missed the sooner we'll get back to enjoying the game and not dreaming up conspiracies..

  • jimmy23
    10:36 AM 03/09/2018

    Ehhh, you can't catch every single infringement, both teams benefitted from it. I'd say let it slide and not make a big deal of it.

  • drg
    10:16 AM 03/09/2018

    I believe that is the case for things like foul play, or the 4th official can be asked to check play directly prior to a try being scored.

    Personally I don't like the idea..there is already a game with significant stoppages, it's called NFL...

    Problem with adding the 4th official into forward passes, is that next step is to have him help officiate rucks, scrums, lineouts, mauls etc..

  • pickay
    9:29 AM 03/09/2018

    Wait, isn't that the case now already?

  • andinov
    11:49 PM 02/09/2018

    Both teams benefited from their infringements too.

    I wouldn't be opposed to a system where if the 4th official upstairs is able to have a look at the incident while play continues and either as soon as its clear or at the next breakdown he's able to communicate to the ref on the pitch that something might have been missed

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