Happens regularly in the AFL... and from much, much tighter situations where you have people surrounding you COMPLETELY. In fact I would've been surprised if that rugby player didn't make that pass.
[YOUTUBE]Sw2paSEOk8g[/YOUTUBE]
You can't 'flick' pass in AFL, you have to hit the ball will your other hand. You can pass the ball forwards too in AFL making it much easier to advance, no offside either so you can kick the ball long distances to anyone, making gaining meters simple for anyone who can kick a football.
Wow they are such **** kicks... they could try putting some proper technique, something I've never understood is why rugby players don't kick more accurately, I remember watching one of the storm Gf's and I was shocked at how bad the players were kicking.
As opposed to AFL players who are so accurate that they need two extra sets of goal posts so if they miss they still get rewarded.
The good kickers in the NRL would all be on par or better than AFL players, granted not all players in the NRL can kick (some cant at all, or very poor) but then again our sport is more than just about kicking, however it is a very important part and as such every team will have players that can kick the ball, if they don't they will suffer.
In most NRL teams you will have
at least two players that kick the ball regularly, the play makers (half back and 5/8th). At the end of the 6th tackle of a set you must hand the ball over (this is the major thing that is different between league and union), to avoid doing this in poor field position it is wise to kick the ball down field on or before tackle 5 to gain extra territorial advantage from the set. This means that kicking is a vital part of league, and thats just defensive kicking.
I would like to see an AFL player kick a drop-goal, thats a kick for goal in play that must touch the ground while in the process of kicking, as Darren Lockyer is doing in this picture and the winning goal in the video by Todd Carney.
[youtube]u4l6wimxXPM[/youtube]
All of them are cheap coathangers that any sniper could do...
I'll show you what "tough" is, getting hit by the point of the shoulder in the face, doing a 360... getting up and grabbing the ball a second later and letting it result in a goal. Not the rugby "Run into a player, fall over" repeat.
Rugby, of either type, is 10000x 'tougher' than AFL simply by the way it is played.
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=11429716