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Illusion of the forward pass

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shtove

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Just saw Llanelli beat Munster, and there was talk about a forward pass for Munster's first try.

This vid http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgMlDy2jP9s explains something I never understood before.

The point is that, because of momentum, it's almost impossible for the ball NOT to move forward relative to the ground if a player is at full tilt and passes across his body. It becomes obvious with the example of passing back over your head - nobody would say it's forward, but the ball still moves forward. So the ref should judge the movement of the ball relative to the passing player.
 
But that pass was nothing to do with momentum, the ball literally pointed forwards when it was passed and gained 5m+. That's not momentum, simply a frustrated girls rugby (gridiron) player.
 
shtove, shouldnt Mark Jones's try been allowed then? You can't have it both ways.
 
I think the ruling goes that as long as the first movement of the ball is propelling it back or across then it isn't a forward pass... so as long as you don't propel the ball forward in the act of passing, it's play on.
 
Only sharing something that I just learned. No point being made about the Munster try. It'll make me slower in future to jump up and shout "Ref, forward!!!!"
 

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