Friday night’s Blues vs Hurricanes Super Rugby clash was a cracker between two teams trying to establish themselves as contenders in 2016; one coming back from several below-par seasons, the other looking for their first win of the season after going so close last year.
However, for the second week in succession in a New Zealand derby, there were contentious Television Match Official (TMO) decisions that proved to be significant talking points in the aftermath that Last Word on Sport must analyze them with our resident NZ Rugby referee contributor, Scott MacLean.
Did the TMO get them correct?
The first contentious call came early in the second half, with the TJ Perenara second try. The Hurricanes had driven for the Blues line, brought down short. A first attempt from the base of the ruck was denied when Blues openside Blake Gibson got his hand in and dislodged the ball. It was then regathered by Ardie Savea who fed the ball to his captain to score; or had he?
Perhaps unsighted, referee Nic Briant referred the matter upstairs to TMO Shane McDermott. Neither the fact that Gibson had propelled the ball forward nor Perenara’s grounding were in doubt. The movement in question was whether Savea had lost it forward. Replays showed he had used his right hand to drag it towards his left hand, which was in front but even slowed-down it seemed inconclusive. That also created an element of doubt as to how clean it was.
However McDermott adopted a practical view, advising Briant that in “real-time” Savea’s pickup was fine, and the try should be awarded. There are some learnings in this.
Firstly, McDermott is still an active referee at club level as well as at the top level of domestic NZ rugby and a regular Assistant Referee at Super Rugby level, and his conclusion reflects that of the on-field referee who only ever gets one look at it at full speed. Secondly the temptation with super-slow motion is to go looking for what isn’t clear and obvious, and almost get to a state of ‘paralysis by analysis’ which can be exacerbated by officials who are no longer active with the whistle themselves. They become accustomed to only viewing the action through a monitor. This was an issue in last year’s ITM Cup, where a number of questionable decisions were made from a fans point of view.
The second incident came just minutes later. Blues fullback Lolagi Visinia collected the ball, and just on the Hurricanes side of halfway slipped a short pass to winger Tevita Li who scythed through the defence and beat Cory Jane to score a stunning try that would bring the Blues well within range of regaining the lead. But again – had he?
This time Briant consulted his assistant Brendon Pickerill who was in a good position but recommended the TMO check the pass from Visinia to Li. Again McDermott was called into action and replays showed that the ball had gone forward. However under Law 12 and the ‘new definition of a forward pass’ the previous factor of how the ball travels is now irrelevant, what matters is the direction of travel out of the hands and arms of the passer. It was clear from the footage that Visinia’s arms had moved in a forward motion and that the try, as contentious as it was, was correctly ruled out.
Conclusive evidence that a try has been scored
TMO decisions are often questioned: just last week Malakai Fekitoa was denied a legitimate try against the posts for the Highlanders, with referee Glen Jackson evidently surprised by the decision; if Jackson, viewing the footage on the stadium big screens believed he had conclusive evidence of a try being scored, he is compelled to award it.
Again, in the match following that George Ayoub–no stranger to creating controversy through his ineptness, gave incorrect advice to Angus Gardiner that stopped Gardiner from investigating whether a Reds player had grounded the ball from an offside position and prevented a Force try (sorry George, you can be offside in the in-goal and it is a poor international official who does not know that) Questionable, but if knowlege of the rules is clear, mistakes can be [as much as humanly possible] removed from professional sport.
Questions are duly asked of all officials. What we ask for is that the TMO gets the calls correct and that balances technology with common sense. On Friday night we got that.
“Main photo credit”
