Monstering the Myth: When Forward is not Forward

We've seen it on television, in matches while playing, and in afternoon touch rugby games. A player with a head of steam tosses a pass to the right or left and by the time it's caught by a teammate, the ball is in front of where it is thrown. Sometimes the lines marked on the grass make it obvious, sometimes it's that the passer or another defender stops and the ball has clearly passed that player by (in a forward direction) in the air. Yet no forward pass call gets made, or if one is made the passer disputes it fervently. Ridiculous?

Not so fast. The ball can travel forward without being illegally passed. Why? The rugby union laws define "throw forward" thusly:

A throw forward occurs when a player throws or passes the ball
forward. 'Forward' means towards the opposing team’s dead ball line.

The fine distiction here is that the player must propel the ball forward to throw it forward. If it is passed backward or sideward and travels forward in space, that's fine. How does a backward or sideward throw travel forward? Momentum. Have you ever been standing on a street at night and watched someone toss a cigarette out the window? You will note that:

1) the person doing so is a tosser in more ways than one, and
2) the cigarette will fly forward and continue to roll forward on the ground, even if it was thrown backward a bit by the driver, because it has momentum from traveling in a car moving forward very quickly.

Although your average rugby player can't keep up with a car on a street and a cigarette is not much like a rugby football, the principle is the same. The football will continue to carry the momentum of the forward-running player, so it may drift forward in space even if thrown sideward.

If that analogy is for the birds, just watch this old video from the Australian Rugby Union and try to complain a little bit less about though not-so-forward throws (though beware that not every referee is familiar with the concept--feel free to recommend this site!):