It can't only be me who is sick and tired of everyone calling forward on every 50/50 pass, it is really starting to make me think about not going to games.

Not every ball is forward, fair enough Bentham and the touchies missed one or two but these did not result in tries our crap defending and stupid mistakes again did, we have been like this for a few years making stupid error after stupid error and I would have hoped it would have been gotten rid of by now but it hasn't, we where really lacking in attack I don't think I saw a dummy runner once this game just one out then a cock up.

Those who where bashing Bentham for forwards also missed our own forwards passes funny that, but I digress Leeds on Thursday and if the forwards shouters are out in force again I think that's me done really can't be d with it any more.

You shout forward hoping to sway the ref into thinking it's forward and giving you a penalty.

Or is that just me?

People shout all sorts of nonsense and have done in all the time I've watched RL... If it bothers you so deeply I feel snooker may be more your thing.

You don't get a penalty for forward passes as far as I know.

I find it more annoying that forward passes seem to be ignored more often then not. Either police them or not. Just make your mind up.

Works for Leeds and the south stand



Come on you bulls !

Scrum then, you get the point though. Fans getting on the refs backs happens in any sport. Some refs do let it get to them, although at Odsal, it seems to work against us

Yes the touchie on the stand side was taking the p1$$ and loving it.

What has for a long time annoyed me about forward passes is how many blatant forward passes are let go. I am not talking about the Bulls now, I am talking about what is clearly a policy of the officials. It is definitely not the case that they do not see the worst forward passes that we clearly see in the grounds and on TV, it MUST be the case that unless it is taking the pi$$, the policy is to ignore and let the game flow.

What was annoying in the extreme today was that within the first 20 minutes or so, Bentham called us for three forward passes, two of which were to say the least marginal at best, and they were each a key moment. They were not at insignificant times. This got the crowd's back up, (a) because we all think we know what the reffing policy is for forward passes, and so when it is seemingly disapplied, you raise an eyebrow. If it was just once, you could perhaps say maybe just maybe all the officials missed it but not three in a short space of time. And (b) because during the same spell, considerably more forward passes were ignored for Salford. Indeed they then scored a try under the sticks, which killed us off, from a blatantly obvious forward pass. As a try resulted, luckily (or unfortunately) everyone wil be able to se it when the highlight show comes out.

The crowd did indeed then start shouting "forward" for even flat Salford passes but only as the only way a crowd has of getting the point across to the referee. In other words it was Bentham and the touchies' fault that the crowd got a bit carried away with the cries of "forward", for not policing forward passes evenly, and for calling forward some key Bradford passes that would normally invariably be let go.

I don't suggest much Bentham and his team did it deliberately, but it happened, and I was as wound up as anyone else by it.

I am not tempted to stop watching the game but tend to agree with Broady. Constant repetition of the same cry is tedious. It annoyed me when the Saints fans were notorious for the same monotonous barrack and it annoys me now. It's also counterproductive when you have a referee who has entered the Ganson stage of his career-- i.e. I am a personality and will be noticed.
Having said all that I think FA's comments in the second paragraph are fair comment on the way the game is being policed. The only point I would add is that Salfords general speed and the movement onto the ball ( and with dummy runners off the ball) makes it more likely that their forward passes are missed.
The first two comments on the Effort thread are good commentary on the reason we lost last night.

I've never been a lover of the "let it go - it's good enough", policy. It 's the same with the play the ball and 'straying' offside, and as soon as you start letting things slide the players just take the P further and further.

Nor, before anyone mentions it, do I accept that playing to the rules kills the game but they will be enormously reduced if the refs were to stamp on it with a firm hand...

You guys are starting to wake up to the fact that it's what your ground has become known for.
From the first minute,the cry goes up.
FORWARD PASS
It's become a reason not to go to the game.
Refs won't take any notice,now they know it's so constant.
I didn't go last night,but the last time I was there,it was constant,like toothache .
There may have been forward passes last night,and last season,but there's nothing to suggest the ref makes the number of mistakes that you guys claim,or that it's just against your team.
In reality,I couldn't really care less but you do need to know that it's what you've become known for .

Shucks - we didn't know that! Wow, no really, WOW, WE thought it was everywhere else........

That's the attitude !

There was me thinking Odsal was known for a crap view and no roof!

But that would require some match officials that had 2 working eyes and a pair of gonads.

We're really not.

It really doesn't. This is not to say it doesn't happen, but in general, there are several places I go to where you are more likely to hear forward shouts, I'd say Wakey is probably the worst. Leeds are on the refs back a lot too. But in reality it is pretty normal fan behaviour. Especially by home teams getting beat.


If for whatever reason you don't go to a game, so what? Free country and all that. Personally it sounds like a very thin veneer over other proper reasons but hey.


I think actually it is very well documented, and anyway just common sense, that refs, being human, are susceptible to pressure. They of course try to resist it but whilst pressurising the officials in our game is not within a million miles of - say - European Champions League soccer, where it is an actual art that people are trained in, and where crowds pathologically disagree with the most blatantly correct decisions if against their team, it happens in all sports simply because there is a point to it, to put pressure on an official, and we all know that, to varying extents, it is bound to have an effect.


You don't say!



Interesting. So the crowd shouted "FORWARD" non-stop for 80 minutes of play. Even the 40 or so minutes when we had the ball. Actually, I don't believe you and suggest you are talking patent bollox.


Translation: "My opinion is different from your opinion", and actually nobody said it's "just against our team".





So you both "couldn't care less" - AND at the same time care so much that it actually stops you from going to a game where the team you support is playing!

Neat dissection.
You really are oblivious to the main point but,as you say,you can't do anything about the roof either

It is pretty ironic, coming as it does from fans of the team that benefitted so greatly from the gridiron throws of the Paul brothers aka 'flat passes'.

FWIW I think Widnes fans are even worse, and they top it off with their childish 'get into 'em' chants

I have seen games at Odsal where the shouts of forward was very few, which was probably because the ref. had spotted them early on in the game.
Plus my friend if you don't go to games because of this..how do you know it actually happens? Also if it happens with your team, perhaps that says more about the the actual number of these types of passes from your players?

Strange reasoning for not being in attendance??

It wasn't the reason I didn't go on Friday but my point was that it's becoming a distraction, and a reason not to go.
Your mates on this forum accept that you're known for it.
The last 3 times I went to a match at Odsal it was madness,every pass was called forward,from the terrace opposite the main stand.
I agree it's not the biggest deal in the world,but please don't be in denial.
That's the way it is at Odsal.

It tends to be more from teams who are losing, obviously. Wakey being the proud exception who have it on a tape loop so it is shouted every 10 seconds whether the ball is in play or not. It tends to amuse me more than anything, especially when I am watching Wakey, but even more when one of the big teams is being beaten by one of their perceived inferiors, usually allied with constant booing & cries of 'cheat'. As regards the legitimacy of the booing, my opinion is that the ref gets over 99% of the calls correct. I cannot remember a game spoiled by numerous missed calls, I cannot remember one pass from Cas v Saints where I was remotely moved to shout 'forward'. It is a non-issue. If it was affecting my enjoyment that much I would stand/sit somewhere else or listen to my ipod.

Seething quietly about things is part of the enjoyment for me.

Over [ahem years I've been to a zillion away games where the crowd has spent half the game going ballistic at the officials and working itself into a self-righteous frenzy the more points Northern/Bulls accumulated from the perceived bent and biased officiating.

I have always found it hilarious watching grown people reverting to age seven, and it provided me with much enjoyment. Sometimes I'd join in an argument about chosen decisions, just to wind them up even more.

So I can see how this (pretty normal) phenomenon can be amusing for opposition fans, but it's hard to see how it could possibly be a reason for not going to the game. I expect the OP can't even bear to watch Emmerdale any more as they keep accusing the wrong person of the crime.

I have been watching RL for over 50 years and can remember the call 'forward' at most matches. The problem I see is that in their desire to keep the game moving the 'flat' pass has been accepted when in the good old days the pass could only travel backwards to the receiving player. It must be extremely difficult for a referee to spot all the flat passes especially near the try line.
I think the RL have gone the way of football where the referee ignores all the shirt pulling arm wrestling in the penaltyarea in the aim of keeping the game flowing.
If the referees in both football and rugby league always penalised any offence each time the professional players/coaches would quickly revert to fair play.
initially there would be a slowing down of the sports but eventually the game would be much better and fairer to both teams.

I've been watching RL since around 1952, though I confess I was only, sort of four years old, so probably spent more time pulling bottles out of the old rubbish tip filling that Odsal had back then, than actually concentrating on the rugby - however, I can't remember a time when the rules specified the ball HAD to go backwards, indeed my recollection is that "in any direction except forwards" has pretty much always figured in the laws of the game.

That said, I'd agree that players DID make more of an effort to actually pass it backwards in the old days but that has been overtaken by the more modern approach of the legal 'flat pass', and obviously, the nearer you go to flat makes the possibility of it going forward much more likely.

At the risk of turning this thread into Dêja vue all over again though, no matter how slowly you you play the game [unless you stop to make the pass, the ball will always finish up in front of the passer due to the momentum of the ball and, sadly, I do feel than many[i still [/ihaven't grasped this simple matter of physics.