Ojomoh try should have stood
Our f ormer elite match of f icial gives his view on a phantom k nock-on in the Wild West
WEST COUNTRY derbies are always special and October’s Bristol-Bath game was no exception. Not only was it close, tense and exciting but it had key decisions throw a spotlight on the wrong team… the match officials!
It might surprise people but most refs just want to referee and escape the field unscathed. However, there were a number of decisions that just didn’t look right. One was a real head-scratcher.
In the 33rd minute, Bath were in the ascendancy and leading 10-8. From a ruck 15m from Bristol’s line, Bath had a huge overlap on the left. They ran a move with Jonathan Joseph making the dummy run but Orlando Bailey’s pass went to ground and was collected by Tom de Glanville. He put in a sublime pass for Max Ojomoh to cross the line. Only for ref Ian Tempest to blow and rule a knock-on by Joseph, who never actually got near the ball. What’s more, the ball went backwards from Bailey.
To be fair, Tempest said in real time “play on”, but then he allowed himself to be overruled by Greg Macdonald, the assistant ref, from a far worse position.
These are process failures, clear and simple. Tempest should have backed himself. We have a saying: “Referee what’s in front of you.” This was just one of several occasions in our game lately when that hasn’t happened.
Macdonald called what he thought he saw but he should have recognised that the referee was better placed and said nothing after Tempest called for play to continue. Add to that the fact the ball clearly wasn’t touched by anybody and you have (another) massive mistake that ultimately cost Bath dear in a narrow defeat.