i've been having a lot of these problems too, esp how the player passes it 20 metre's back when you're trying to pass to the player next to you, but i've learned you can't just sprint and pass it and expect it to be perfect, also i think you have to actually turn slightly to the player as you're passing to throw a flat pass, you have to slow down as you pass the ball and time the runs waiting for follow players to set them up, not just sprint and expect all the players to be right next to you, those kind of helped for me anyway, and yeah i'm having a lot of knock ons too and for no reason, its really frustrating. as for how it zooms in, i thought that was a stupid idea too coz you can't see any of your team mates so i just turned it off in the settings and changed the camera view to side view.
another problem i had was didn't realize i needed to press both pass buttons at the same time to pass to the first five so he can kick etc, i was just passing it out wide every time wondering why there was always a prop as the first receiver lol, it didn't even mention to do that in the tutorials
i think the game would be a lot better if you could set up play formations from line outs or scrums etc, i also don't like how the scrums move so far forward too
that said i do still love the game even if it is frustrating at times, if i can get used to this this might be the best rugby game so far imo
its just so frustating and annoying that in 14 years since jonah lomu rugby ps1 nothing has improved u would think in that time it would be close to perfect aye, if your not throwing the ball in at the line out u may as well drop the controller until the other team gets it lol. 14 years later and no structure or anything has been improved me and my mates will stick to lomu from ps1 who knows maybe in another 14 years they will have worked out all they need to do is work from that game 
