"Does anyone else think it might have gone backwards?"

How would you answer the commentator's question?

The Brumbies attack. Stephen Hoiles passes to George Smith who is tackled by Ruan Pienaar of the Sharks. The ball comes back quickly to the Brumbies and lock Ben Hand picks it up and passes to Stephen Moore on his left. It is a rolling pass which strikes Moore's hands and then moves on to Matt Giteau who snaps it up and starts darting. The referee whistles for a scrum for a knock-on.

Was it a knock-on?

Law 12 DEFINITION: KNOCK-ON
A knock-on occurs when a player loses possession of the ball and it goes forward, or when a player hits the ball forward with the hand or arm, or when the ball hits the hand or arm and goes forward, and the ball touches the ground or another player before the original player can catch it.
‘Forward’ means towards the opposing team’s dead ball line.

When the skidding ball hit Moore's hands , Moore was less that half a metre from the Sharks' 22. When Giteau picked the ball up, he was more than a metre from the 22.

The ball went further from the Sharks' dead ball line not nearer is.

To have gone forward the ball would have had to make a substantial detour before ending up where it did. It did not make a detour.

The answer to the commentator's question is probably Yes.

A handling error does not necessarily mean a knock-on.