Maybe there will be different opinions, and that of course is fine. But this writer’s firm view sees it is a leading contender for the “poorest decision of the season award”. Between them, referee Anthony Woodthorpe and his TMO for the day, David Rose, pulled the rug from under the Ospreys, denying them a famous win over Ulster.
In the dying minutes at Ravenhill, the Welsh visitors conjured up a magical Kieran Hardy try which looked like it was enough to see them advance to the Challenge Cup quarter-finals. Rugby in the valleys is on its knees and there is a lot of talk about disbanding the Ospreys, so a win here could conceivably have made a huge difference and even saved some jobs. But the match officials’ decision decreed otherwise and the potential victory was annulled.
As Woodthorpe was awarding the try, he didn’t seem to think anything was amiss. But then TMO Rose entered the fray. He told the referee that Owen Watkin’s pass to Hardy needed more scrutiny and advised that the ball had gone forward out of Watkin’s hands. It is essential that TMOs stick to the protocols which state very clearly that they should only advise the referee on issues which are clear and obvious. This certainly did not meet that requirement. Rose had no rhyme nor reason to get involved.
So, the next step for Woodthorpe was to overrule his colleague, right? Not this time. I was not alone in being flummoxed when the referee agreed with his off-pitch official, and that was that. A complete misread of the situation and a blot on the competition. If this decision was ever to become the yardstick to measure forward passes, we’re going to see an awful lot of tries ruled out.
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The reality is that there was no conclusive, clear and obvious evidence that the ball was passed forward. We’ve seen it before, and recently too. In Ireland’s win over Italy another English TMO, Ian Tempest, incorrectly called a scoring pass by the visitors as forward.
It’s also important to say that there can be no suggestions of bias, that it was effectively a hometown decision. Nobody should entertain any such sentiment. But, my goodness, there are questions of competence which surely arise. The TMO issue raised its head in other matches too – they are becoming more and more intrusive.
In Connacht’s win over the Sharks referee Sam Grove-White had fellow Scot, Mike Adamson, assisting in the role of TMO. There seemed to be an open line between them – a lot of chat, which again is not the purpose of the system. It’s hard to imagine how a referee can go about his business with constant feedback coming into his ear. There is also a significant danger of referees becoming dependent on the input from the TMO. I’d suggest some have done so already. World Rugby’s review of the TMO protocols cannot come soon enough.
What we are seeing, on an all too frequent basis, is far too much TMO involvement. If referees are afraid to make mistakes, then they should not be there. And the officials certainly should not be allowed to stretch the protocols beyond recognition, to a point where the TMO becomes the near-equivalent of a second referee.
Cometh the hour, cometh the man. Bath beat Saracens in an epic contest, and the men from the West Country won’t be far off lifting the trophy at the end of May. Before half-time referee Nika Amashukeli took quite a knock in a mismatched collision with Bath’s Josh Bayliss. The referee looked disoriented when he restarted play, so it was no surprise that he was replaced at half-time by a young Welsh referee, Ben Connor. It is not an easy job to come on in any circumstances, and, in a match of this import, it is a huge challenge. One or two players tried to put pressure on him initially, but Connor was not for turning. He stuck to his task, and came out of his 40 minutes with considerable credit.
Finally, to Munster. Greek mythology tells the story of Sisyphus, condemned for eternity to push a boulder up a hill, but he could not prevent it rolling back to the bottom each time he neared the summit. If Munster’s form continues the way of Sisyphus’ boulder, the summit of qualification for Europe next season is far from guaranteed. As difficult as it must be for their supporters, the team probably need the red army more than ever right now. Failure is too awful to contemplate.
