No further action from Scots over try controversy
SCOTLAND have no plans to pursue any further explanation from World Rugby as to why Sam Skinner’s late try against France was not awarded.
A controversial finish to Saturday’s Six Nations clash at Murrayfield saw Skinner dive over for what looked to be the matchwinning score.
After deliberating over the footage for the best part of five minutes, however, referee Nic Berry and TMO Brian MacNeice ruled there was no conclusive evidence of the ball being touched down.
That was despite TV images appearing to show that Skinner had it down, with the officials actually in agreement at one stage to award the try, only to go back and rule it out.
Many observers agreed that the try should have been awarded, which would have seen Scotland win the game instead of France.
Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend said afterwards that clarity would be sought from World Rugby, albeit that is just standard post-match practice these days.
However, there would have been scope and precedent for Scotland to escalate the matter further had they chosen to do so.
They could have formalised their concerns in writing and requested an official explanation from the governing body, specifically with regards to the TMO process.
For instance, after last year’s World Cup final, New Zealand asked World Rugby for an explanation as to why Aaron Smith’s try was ruled out against South Africa.
World Rugby was then prompted into a public response after reports in New Zealand claimed the authorities had privately admitted the try should have stood. Mail Sport understands, however, that Scotland have no plans to pursue the matter any further than the standard post-match dialogue with World Rugby. For Scotland scrum-half Ben White, the matter is now closed — and he insists it would be wrong for Berry and the TMO to be vilified. After the World Cup final last year, referee Wayne Barnes was the target of vile online abuse after disallowing Smith’s try for the All Blacks. Asked about the chorus of boos from the Murrayfield crowd at fulltime, White said: ‘People are passionate, they care, it means a lot to them. ‘Some people in the heat of the moment might have booed, but I want people to show the ref respect. ‘He doesn’t need to get any abuse. He’s made his decision, he’s done his process and, look, that’s life, things go wrong all the time.
‘I hope he doesn’t receive any backlash. We have to be better as a team so that we don’t even bring him into it. That’s their decision and that’s what we have to live with. It’s a frustrating one but they’ve made the decision. We have to move on now.’
Scotland may be smarting from the injustice but Ben Earl insists England also have a point to prove in their Calcutta Cup clash.
The controversial decision prevented Scotland from entering round three of the Six Nations with an unbeaten record to match that of Steve Borthwick’s team.
‘Scotland are a very proud rugby nation, they’ve got some great players, some great individuals,’ Earl said. ‘We’ve never had an easy game against them and last time we played them at Twickenham, the first game of last year, we lost.
‘We’ve got to right some wrongs and so we’re really looking forward to going up there.’