Too much TMO leads to paralysis by analysis
WE NEED to get back to some basics over the use of the Television Match Official following the opening game at Twickenham.
There was that controversial incident when Jaco Peyper reversed his original decision to award a try to Nikola Matawalu just as Fiji were preparing for the conversion.
The referee is in charge, not the TMO. The referee’s decision is final and if he awards a try I am against that decision being reversed. It might be that subsequent footage or pictures show him to be mistaken but referees have always made mistakes and will continue to do so.
We play under a common set of Laws and in 99.999 per cent of all games played, TMO technology and big screens at the ground don’t exist. The fact they do exist in elite rugby does not mean the referee gives up his absolute power to make the call.
If an experienced referee, in consultation with his two expert assistant referees, decided that he feels able to award a try without resorting to TMO technology then that is his decision.
Equally if he wants the TMO to have another look before he makes a decision that is also his call. But we have to be measured how we use TMO technology. If you reviewed every referee’s decision, every missed forward pass or knock on, the game would take well in excess of two hours to complete and lose all continuity. There is a danger here of getting paralysis by analysis and making a game so complicated it can only be followed on a TV screen.
When a try is scored, how far back do you review? If you went back to the last scrum, whenever that was, you would almost certainly find a crooked feed so what is your decision then? And there is another factor here. A referee, having decisively awarded the try, is belatedly shown pictures on the big screen just as the kicker is lining up an important conversion kick.
Say, after looking at the footage, the referee decides the try still stands. Is that process fair on the kicker, who might be going through his routines trying to line up a kick that might win the World Cup?
I didn’t think Peyper had a particularly good game on Friday — like the players he looked nervous. I wasn’t thrilled at some of the other delays. In the first half there was that intervention for an alleged tip tackle which he and the touchjudge had a very good view of.
It wasn’t a massive incident, it was a penalty but we took another three minutes deciding that.