TMO 'help' is not solving the forward pass

It might be time for common sense

Three Saturdays gone as I write this and in the Premiership there has been controversy each week, not over any minor alterations but based on laws of the game that have been with us forever; inevitably, the use of the Television Match Official features in all three.

First on the agenda was the interpretation of the forward pass, or when is a 'forward' pass not a forward pass. Two games came under the microscope, Gloucester v Leicester and Harlequins v Bristol, the second of the double-header programme played at Twickenham. This did have an effect on the score line and coach Andy Robinson was not slow to react: "When the opposing director of rugby said he thought it was a forward pass, how do you think I feel?" The decision had gone to the TMO who, after a long deliberation, confirmed a try. There quickly followed plenty of debate on just how a forward pass could be identified and one writer summed it up perfectly with "It underlined why the gobbledegook about hands pointing this way should be shelved for the common sense solution that a pass that appears to have a forward trajectory invariably does."

I couldn't have put it better, having often wondered how the proponents of the "which way the hands are pointing" theory seriously thought that a referee, in the cut and thrust of real time action, had the chance to spot which way the player's hands were pointing. I suppose the 'momentum rule', a description which cannot be found in either code's rugby laws, has much to answer for. 'Stevo' (Mike Stephenson), of Sky rugby league commentary fame, is credited with starting it all off, although he fiercely denies it.

The earlier forward pass issue from the game at Gloucester again came under TMO scrutiny and this decision to allow the try soon persuaded Leicester coach Graham Cockerill, who was on the receiving end, to announce that he would be seeking clarification from Elite Referee Panel Director Tony Spreadbury.

Next up were late tackles and the potentially misleading effect a slow motion replay could have on making the hit seem a lot worse than it really was. This time Brian Moore, never one to hold back either on the field or in print, led the debate, claiming that replays of incidents for the TMO should only be at normal speed to avoid distorting the true picture. There is some merit in this suggestion but you could find other areas of the game that are reviewed where it could also be applied.

To round off a busy three weeks of replays a thunderous clash between Saracens and Northampton produced another major incident. Chris Ashton was cited for two alleged instances of biting, the victim on both occasions reporting it to the referee. This has all the makings of a complex discussion for the disciplinary panel, particularly as Ashton has 'previous' including a ban for eight weeks when guilty of biting in 2012. If all this points to increased use of the TMO, popular opinion indicates a desire to see less.

David Matthews

29/09/2016

Postscript: Chris Ashton was banned for thirteen weeks