The TMO has been a fixture of rugby for some time but I for one would rather see the role of the 4th official reduced rather than increased. 

Rugby fans were treated to an excellent game at Twickenham last weekend with England going down by 1 point to New Zealand.  It was the second close match at Twickenham in a row with the English having beaten the Boks narrowly the week before and once again the TMO was to play a massive role.  England scored what appeared to be a legitimate charge down try in the final minutes but the TMO stepped in and after examining the angles made what most people considered to be the correct decision in disallowing the try. 

This was in contrast to the previous week when the TMO failed to take action against Owen Farrell’s no arms tackle in the closing seconds of the match against the Springboks.  As a betting man I tend to talk from the pocket in these situations, however, neither of these decisions had any impact on my bank balance.  As a fan though I am getting sick of the intervention of the TMO and would far rather live with referee error.

I don’t mind the TMO being there for foul play reviews and also to check the grounding of the ball for a try but looking back at the move which led to the try to find error makes no sense to me.  Take this past weekend where England were ruled offside when charging down the New Zealand kick. What if the English flanker had not made it to the try line but had instead been held up over the line?  In this case England would have got a scrum and they could well have scored a try from that.  This try would have come from exactly the same charge down which was penalized but in the scenario I have outlined England would have got away with it as they never ended up scoring the try in that movement. 

Soccer has largely resisted the intervention of technology and when VAR was used at the World cup it was at least fairly quick and decisive.  I would rather live with the odd howler than having to be at the mercy of a TMO, which is let’s face it, probably the most sheltered employment in the world.

Twitter: @BrentGraham

 
This article was written for the CitiGaming supplement of the Citizen Newspaper and was published on the 15th of November 2018.

Brent Graham is a blogger on www.goodforthegame.co.za and sends a  free weekly e-mail list just CLICK HERE to register