Why do so many forward passes not get called back?

Question

Is it just me or do referees and touch judges seem to let passes go that are obviously forward.Melbourne Storms Cameron Smith thows so many blatant forward passes out of dummy half but doesnt get pulled up for them. Obviously he keeps doing it because he gets away with it. I think this needs to be clamped down on, espcially in the finals.

Answer 1

You have just stated the obvious!!! But don`t stop at Cam Smith, quite a number of the (High Profile) teams do it as part of their regular play and are not pinged for it . But let a not so favoured team try..enough said.

Answer 2

I'm glad someone else know how many obvious forward passes Melbourne throw. But they're Melbourne, a protected species...

Answer 3

The refs are couched to let the game flow so it's now a mess of he does this and they do that. every player stretches the rules and the ref should apply that particular rule accordingly. They are couched to read the game and ref accordingly.

I've a very good mate who's Q cup standard / qualified. He agrees, but likes to go home to the family after doing a bit for the community ! not the local hospital.  

the fans over the last 10 or 15 yrs have been brainwashed to accept a more flowing game. fare enough, but at the cost of a properly refereed game. Check the stats from 10 yrs ago for total penalties awarded or total penalty goals kicked by your teams ace kicker.

Back when i was playing for the australian under 5's it was nothing for say daryll haligan to kick half a dozen penalty goals in a game regularly.

Answer 4

Ozzy has got it right. The NRL wants the game to flow so the referees and touchies have been told to turn a blind eye to forward passes from the ruck area. It is so annoying when you compare it to junior games (not NYC) and country and suburban leagues where this is picked up by both refs and touchies.

One way to stop these forward passes is to go back to the old ruck rule. That is that BOTH teams be back 5 metres from the ruck. You also still have the 10 metre gap.