Sharks boss Gary Gold, his players and the fans have every right to feel aggrieved. Yes, they lost to the Bulls on Saturday – a much improved and highly impressive Bulls side – but they could just as easily have won and many will feel the Sharks were hard-done by.
The crucial moment came when Francois Hougaard scored his team’s first try from what to just about everyone, except the television match official, appeared to be a forward pass from Jesse Kriel.
Now this “forward pass” issue has been debated at length for some time and will continue to divide fans, players and officials. It would seem everything about a pass now revolves around the direction the hands are moving in, rather than whether the ball actually moves forward or not.
The law, though, says nothing about hand movement, but simply, “A throw forward occurs when a player throws or passes the ball forward. ‘Forward’ means towards the opposing team’s dead ball line.”
Now come on, Bulls fan or not, when Kriel passed the ball to Hougaard the ball moved forward to the “opposing team’s dead ball line”. It’s that simple.
Some observers, though, suggest it doesn’t matter if the ball floats forward, as long as the hand movement when releasing the ball is backwards. Really? What if the ball carrier is running almost straight along the centre line (across the field) and his hand movement is backwards ... doesn’t that mean the ball will move directly in the direction of the “opposition team’s dead ball line?” Yes, and then how would the referee and TMO adjudge it?
Also, what if the ball is passed backwards, but a huge gust of wind pushes the ball forwards and towards the opposition team, let’s say by a metre or two. Would that be a forward pass or not?
The decision to allow Kriel’s pass to Hougaard to stand has been labelled a “game-changer” by Gold. With very little separating the teams after 80 minutes that score did, indeed, have a huge impact on the outcome and the awarding of bonus points. Now I’m not suggesting the Sharks would have necessarily won the game, but we’ve got to ask whether the correct decision was made regarding that pass.
I don’t think it was. Forget camera angles; the ball went forward, by at least a metre; it’s that simple. I was watching the game in the Ellis Park media centre on Saturday and everyone around me called “forward pass” the moment Hougaard caught the ball. That was in real time.
Lastly, let’s forget who was playing at Loftus Versfeld. Let’s replace Kriel with Israel Dagg and Hougaard with Julian Savea and the occasion is the World Cup final. And let’s replace the Sharks with the Boks. I’d love to know how those who say the decision was the correct one would feel if the Boks were on the receiving end of that one. - The Star