THE TELEVISION MATCH OFFICIAL NEEDS TO BE INVOLVED LESS NOT MORE

There was always a chance that once Rugby Union decided to extend the powers of the Television Match Official (TMO) there would be the inevitable complaint: it takes too long. The game is already fractured by scrummage resets, the ball out of play and endless stoppages for substitutions the longer a match goes on. Scotland v England was a marvellous example of how you wouldn’t choose to spend your money on a Saturday afternoon, so a bit more hanging  around waiting for a decision surely can’t do that much harm?

The decision on whether or not a try has been scored still remains with one of two decisions, “try, yes or no?” or the less likely “I believe a try has been scored, is there any reason why I cannot award it?” Simple. But you have to admit that there have been some real teasers already this season. There does come a stage when replaying an incident continuously merely complicates the final outcome. It can sometimes be worth bearing in mind that if there had not been any assistance from technology what the conclusion might be. Nor does it follow that being alone in the Television van guarantees that the correct decision will be reached.

Rather more complicated for the TMO is when a try is ‘scored’ and the referee asks him to go back, but not beyond the last phase of play, to check out a possible offence: obstruction, offside, forward pass etc. The latter is particularly controversial (Rugby League leaves this to the on-field officials) in view of the camera angles which can easily distort the direction of a pass. Unless I am mistaken their Rugby Union counterparts seem to have cleverly avoided adjudicating on this, a very wise decision.

So, to foul play, a real can of worms. This is very much the decision of the referee and although the TMO can be summoned to look at a particular incident(s) he remains in an advisory capacity as the referee also views the screen. From what I have seen this appears to have been extremely successful; admittedly, when the referee has trawled through the necessary footage and reported back to the TMO eg “I believe reds number eight has taken out blues number 12 and I am considering a yellow card” the reply is ineluctably “ That is just how I saw it.” And who wouldn’t do the same?

In the Rugby League World Cup played during November all the replays which involved tries being allowed or disallowed featured the TMO speaking his thoughts to the cameras as he arrived at the decision. This in itself was considered to be a major step forward but hold on, when the 2014 Super League Season began in February there were no less than two Video referees, as Rugby League prefers to call them, in the studio. One seemed to be controlling the action on the screen whilst the other, presumably with his assistance, came to a decision. When the announcement was delivered to the crowd it came directly from one of the two who very briefly explained what he had been looking out for.

The Rugby World Cup looms in 2015. Do we leave well alone or is it worth pursuing another idea which might make the whole process more intelligible to the average viewer. My guess is that we won’t be looking at any more changes just yet.