Hodges being tricky in the ingoal

[slacko_mitch]

when doing my referees ticket i was told a deliberate pass forward, was when the player your passing to is standing in front of you as you pass. and was it forward? or was it straight up and down?

 

[Tom Shines]

Even in the ingoal though?

 

[tdcockers]

at least if he got tackled while the ball was in the air, it is not tackled without the ball, because he clearly had control of it.

i guess that is why you wouldn't throw it over the defence and collect on the other side - they are still allowed to tackle you and make it impossible to regather, making it a knock on.

a touch footy ref mate of mine did say something about it not being in the spirit of the game, and can be penalised on that grounds. who decides what is and is not spiritual in rugby league? :lol:

 

[Manu Vatuvei]

It SHOULD be legal, because it's incredibly easy to defend against. The defending player is perfectly entitled to either merely get a touch on the ball, making it a knock on, or smash the attacking player who has just thrown it, so either way it makes it a lot EASIER to defend against than if he just ran with the ball normally.

 

[KeepingTheFaith]

If he deliberately throws it forward then it's a deliberate forward pass, but I think the referee ruled that he threw the ball straight up and it was his backwards momentum that made it look forward. Just one of those incidents that could be debated back and forth all day. Wouldn't have made a difference to the result thankfully.

 

[RL1908]

If you throw the ball forward to yourself its a dilliberate forward pass. However I dont think Hodges threw it forward he threw it up in the air then ran back in and caught it at about the same place he originally threw the ball.

If the ball wasn't deliberately knocked forward - then it would be legal. So, if you are satisfied that he knocked it straight upwards & it didn't travel forward at all, then I would agree it is legal.

The problem is that over the past decades referees have clouded the knock-on rule by treating a ball immediately dropped downwards to the ground as a knock forward. Clearly, "forward" is not the same as "downward" or "upward". Knocking the ball "downward" or "upward" is not a knock forward.

But if Hodges' attempt to knock the ball upwards caused it to travel forwards, that is a deliberate knock-forward and should be penalised.

If anyone needs further proof that merely dropping the ball straight downwards is not a knock-on, I recommend reading the laws of RL in regard to the play-the-ball and drop kicks.

In the play-the-ball, a player is permitted to drop the ball to the ground to play with his foot (though I acknowledge you have to be an idiot to do it today).

In taking a drop kick, the ball is dropped to the ground & kicked at the instant it hits the ground / begins to rise.

The worst example of the misuse of the knock-on rule is referees allowing defenders to deliberately bat the ball forward in attempting to take an intercept - I've heard referees argue that it is legal as the player is attempting to bring the ball under his control. But to my thinking, the first action is clearly a deliberate knock forward of the ball - that is enough to be penalised (as indeed in RU - using exactly the same law - it is penalised).