The role of the television match official (TMO) in rugby matches has been called into question this season. As it stands the TMO can only be called on to adjudicate on decisions relating to events in-goal, the actual scoring of a try or the success of a kick at goal – but many are calling on the video ref to have more of a say.
The debate has grown stronger since Wales’ win over Ireland during the Six Nations. Mike Phillips’s controversial try came from an illegal quick lineout, Matthew Rees using a different ball to throw in to his scrum-half than the one that was kicked out. The Irish players called onto the referee to go upstairs but that wouldn’t have been in the TMO’s remit so Jonathan Kaplan had to rely on the verdict of his touchjudge Peter Allan, who insisted the same ball had been used. Doh!! The try stood and Wales won by six points. No wonder Ireland were aggrieved.
Another recent TMO incident came in the Scarlets-Ulster Magners League game, the video ref took it upon himself to mention a knock-on in the build-up to a Scarlets try thus ruling out the score – and going outside his jurisdiction.
So should the role of the TMO be expanded? Should they be allowed to rule on things in the build-up to a try – a knock-on, an illegal lineout, a forward pass etc? I’d say no – for a number of reasons.
1. Where would you draw the line on the TMO’s influence? Do you go back one, two, ten phases? The sequence of play in rugby would make it too complicated to make one law that would rule out the chance of any mistake going unnoticed.
2. It would take too much time. An 80-minute game could turn into a 200-minute game as every little incident heads upstairs for review. During the Ospreys-Munster game the referee referred four incidents to the TMO – and the crowd grew somewhat impatient at the delay, especially when the success of a penalty kick was determined upstairs. Fans will not put up with lots of TMO decisions and the game will become a boring spectacle.
3. There’s always going to be the odd missed knock-on etc unless you let the video ref rule on every single thing – that’s the nature of the game – and that isn’t feasible. Sport is a game, referees and officials are human, and mistakes happen – accept it.
Obviously no one wants to see a repeat of such a gross error as the awarding of that Phillips try, however, so what is the solution? Well, the best idea I’ve heard is to give each team one appeal during a match, so if they want an incident reviewed by the TMO they could request that.
It would be similar to what happens in tennis and cricket, except in rugby there would only be one chance to challenge a call and even if you’re successful you wouldn’t automatically get another appeal. Ireland, for example, would have been allowed to have the Wales try reviewed on video. At the 2007 World Cup, New Zealand could have sent the France try that resulted from a forward pass upstairs.
This is certainly the most sensible and enforceable suggestion I’ve heard as it would help eliminate major mistakes – but no doubt it’ll take the IRB a good few years to even consider such an idea!
Tags: ireland, mike phillips, TMO, video ref, Wales
