One of the foundational skills in rugby is passing, with pop passes used for throwing short distances into the path of a teammate who is advancing. With two hands on its bottom, the ball is simply flicked to the other player as he or she approaches from behind.
The longer distance spin pass also starts with two hands grasping the ball, with the hand opposite to the direction in which the ball will be passed at the bottom and the other guide hand at the top. The lower hand initiates a fast, hard spin that allows the speed and distance to be controlled, while the top hand directs the ball in the direction of the running receiver.
A third type of rugby pass, the dive, occurs when the ball is retrieved from the ground in a ruck between two teams, or at the bottom of a scrum, with players packed together heads down, trying to gain possession. When positioned over the ball, the player takes a dive to the ground and grabs the ball, executing a spin pass to the receiver in a single fluid motion.
