Conrad Smith: “I’m not a fan of the video ref”
ByAnother weekend of rugby, and again we are talking about match officials, this time the Television Match Official (TMO), sometimes called the video ref.
When All Blacks centre Conrad Smith crashed over the line in the 62nd minute against Wales he seemed certain that he scored, but referee Craig Joubert decided to have the decision checked by the TMO. The decision came back as held up over the line, although the video evidence was decidedly inconclusive.
The man himself said after the game, “Yeah I thought I grounded the ball but who knows? I got up thinking they’d called a forward pass because that’s all the Welsh fellas were telling me, so I didn’t celebrate then they went upstairs… I’m not a fan of the video ref.”
“I’d love refs just to make the call. That’s a big part of rugby. But there’s a fair argument if they’re big calls in test matches and video refs can help them, maybe there’s a case for that but it’s out of my hands.”
Scraping the TMO is not really an option anymore, fans, players and coaches demand that the right decisions are made with regards to scoring and rightly so. However the current IRB protocol for how questions are phrased to the TMO and how the TMO responds to the referee are a bit lacking.
Smith’s non-try was an excellent example. It had all the initial appearances of a try from the body language of both teams but with doubt in the referee’s mind it was referred upstairs. Due to the sheer number of bodies around the ball, there was no clear grounding of the ball so the TMO was unable to give a decision.
So what’s a better protocol for TMO decisions? Personally I like the NFL system where referees make a decision on the field, then check the tapes for “irrefutable video evidence” for overruling their original decision.
This protocol sort of exists within the IRB’s frame work under the question, “Is there any reason I cannot award a try?” but this is only used when the referee is almost certain of a try.
Perhaps the IRB should trial an NFL style of system where referees will instead say, “I believe that a try has been scored, can you rule this out?” or, “I believe the players foot was in touch before the ball was grounded, can you confirm this?”
Of course no system is perfect, but surely the existing one could use a little tweaking.
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The Conrad Smith: “I’m not a fan of the video ref” by Hamish McBrearty, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
