TMO Jonker made himself look a right plonker

REFEREES of yesteryear were divided on the Courtney Lawes call last week. England’s Ed Morrison thought he was offside, South Africa’s Jonathan Kaplan thought Lawes was fine and England had been denied a legitimate and probably match-winning try.

It’s in the record books now so c’est la vie but the most unsatisfactory element of the entire episode was the way referee Jerome Garces, who had the most perfect view of the entire play, was virtually sidelined by the TMO Marius Jonker who lectured him like a naughty schoolboy.

All this in the week that World Rugby insisted that henceforth the referee must take the lead and make the calls when in discussion with the TMO.

“As the half-back picks up the ball, number 20 white is in an offside position,” said Jonker, below. “It’s offside so you need to change your on-field decision to a penalty, as he picks up the ball he is in an offside position.”

Wrong. There was no definitive and compelling evidence that Lawes was offside from the pictures offered and half an hour later even the Sky technicians had failed to come up with a camera angle or shot to back up Jonker.

There was also no angle to satisfactorily reveal the moment TJ Perenara started fractionally lifting the ball and even then we are in dodgy territory because many would argue that the ABs had lost control at the back foot of the ruck and the ball was already out and ‘live’.

At the very least it should have been back to Garces to make the final call. The TMO exceeded his remit. Garces, like all refs, has his idiosyncrasies, but his instincts are usually sound and on this occasion he should have trusted them and ignored the rather hysterical voice in his ear.