Rugby can learn from the World Cup VAR
Like everyone else I’ve been glued to the TV watching the football World Cup and the dominant feature so far has been VAR. Technology has entered the game on the biggest of stages and is making its presence felt.
For me, it has been an undoubted success that has added to the drama, rather than detracted. I’ve been watching the reaction of the players and coaches more than the fans and on the field the players have certainly begun to change their habits.
They’ve quickly learned that the cameras are rolling and have begun to check their tackles in the penalty box and curb some of their diving – Neymar being the exception to date! What I like about the system they’ve put in place for the World Cup is that the decisions seem much quicker than in rugby and the decision on an incident is taken out of the hands of the referee.
By the time the referee runs to the touchline to review the decision he has received the verdict. That is a lesson that Rugby Union needs to learn. The game needs to get the balance right between getting the correct decision and taking the pace and flow out of the game.
No matter how many camera angles you have in rugby you are never going to have enough to determine whether or not a try has been scored under a pile of a dozen or more bodies. The problem for me is that too often referees ‘go upstairs’ as a safety blanket when their rugby instinct has already signalled a try.
That often means they get into a protracted debate with the TMO about whether or not there was a hand underneath the ball or if a ball or foot had touched a blade of white grass. I think some perfectly good tries are not being awarded these days because the technology throws in a seed of doubt that is too often benefiting the defending team.
It is a bit easier in football to make a decision because of the smaller numbers and nature of the contact. I like what they have done with the TV monitor on half-way for the referee to look at the reviews and perhaps that is something rugby could try.
There are so many officials at a top flight rugby match these days that does it really have to be the referee that makes the call on a review of an incident? He asks the question, but then relies on others to make the call.
In order to speed things up, get more top class internationals involved in the review process and hand the decisions over to them totally. Anything to take away the two, three and sometimes four minute delays we are now seeing in the game.
American Football pioneered video technology as far back as 1985, Ice hockey followed suit in 1991 and then HawkEye transformed tennis and cricket. Rugby League embraced it in 1996 and we’ve had it in Rugby Union since 2000.
Hockey, fencing, horse racing, judo, tae kwon do, handball, volleyball, baseball and basketball all successfully use video technology, but is it becoming too widespread in its use in Rugby Union? I don’t think the referee needs to check every decision they have made when a try is scored.
Part of the excitement of any sport is controversy. Did he or she score or didn’t they? How far back in any phase of play do you have to go back to find an indiscretion?
I think Alain Rolland and his team of international referees could do worse than sit down and examine how VAR was used and worked at the World Cup and see how they can adapt their system moving forward. There were a few adaptations at the Junior World Championship in France, but the game needs to find a way to get rid of what often looks like long-winded indecision from the arbiters.
Once you let technology play a part in your sport there is no going back. But you mustn’t become a slave to it. Football will become all the better for it over the next few years, Rugby Union mustn’t go backwards.
I might have lost five or six of my Test tries had there been more scrutiny from the cameras, but there were others given against us that evened things up. You want fair play and correct decision making, but the sport suffers when you have technology and use it badly or slowly.
“Some perfectly good tries are not being awarded because the technology throws in a seed of doubt”