Too Much TMO?
The idea of having a TMO in rugby began with experiments in Pretoria where Louis Wessels, Tappe Henning and Co had taken their cue from American gridiron. It took a while to catch on but its application has now gone far beyond the original scoring of a try.
In gridiron, playing time for a top match is one hour (60 minutes). The average duration of a match to be completed is 3 hours – three times as long as playing time. In rugby union football, a top match has 80 minutes of playing time plus 15 minutes of half-time but the duration of a match is getting longer and longer. Things have been done to speed up the match, such as the way injuries are managed but it is the TMO that is increasing the length of the match – 28% of the stoppage time when England played Fiji.
Two notable noises have been heard at the 2015 World Cup. One of those noises was of crowd disapproval, the other a plea by a referee to the other parts of his officiating team.
Booing is still rugby's ugliest sound, and in one of the matches lots of people booed when the referee referred an incident to a TMO, because they are finding consultation with the TMO tedious, breaking the flow of the game.
Commentators complain about the length of time taken to get a decision from a TMO and the frequency with which he is used in a match. But then they have also been known to complain if it's not used: "If you have the technology, use it." This is backed by saying how important it is to make sure of getting the right decision. After all there is a lot of money riding on a decision, jobs are on the line, We don't want another forward pass fiasco of the 2007 kind, and so on. Pity the TMO. If he gets something wrong, it is because he rushed to judgement and when he takes his time to get things right he is spoiling the game.
Then there is the more philosophical side. It sees sport as possible only because it is played by human beings and human beings are imperfect, they make mistakes. If they were perfect, faultless, sport would be impossible. Now into this human activity you wish to insert a machine, to introduce into what is essentially imperfect some form of mechanical perfection. And its use is growing and becoming more technological. World Cup proudly talks of its latest innovation – Hawk eye.
There is a further consideration. By far most rugby is not played with a TMO available. Using the TMO is a nanofraction of all rugby played even though top matches with the TMO are used so much that top referees are in danger of becoming so used to referring decisions that they become careless, especially at in-goal decisions.
Using the TMO is widening the chasm between normal rugby and the tiny, thin bit of paying rugby. Perhaps it may be a good idea to bring about a complete separation between rugby and paying rugby.
The second sound bite was in the match between Samoa and South Africa. The referee, Wayne Barnes of much experience, pleaded that communications be reduced. You can see a referee running along while 30 players go about the turmoil of their business. He is concentrating on what he can see happening while the assitant on one touchline speaks into his earpiece with advice or warning and the assistant on the other touch line butts in with advice or warning and the TMO starts chattering with advice or warning. It does not make a referee's job easier, not at all.
There are people who are seriously involved in rugby who would like the TMO pulled back to concern itself with scoring tries, leaving foul play to citing commissioners who can examine foul play in their own time, and leaving the running decisions of infringements to the referee and, perhaps, his assistants.
They would obviously like to remove the TMO's right to interrupt the match. At the world Cup there have been TMO intrusions which stopped the match and the upshot was that play was allowed to go on. This was true in four out of five queries about a forward pass when a try was scored and the same is true in the case of a stoppage to examine possible foul play.
A few years ago, the Laws stated: A pass, throw or knock-on should not be adjudged an infringement unless it is clearly so under the law. If there is any doubt play should be allowed to proceed.
any doubt.
This was clearly before the days of TV scrutinisation of refereeing decisions and before the day of the TMO. One wished it still applied though there is consultation with the TMO just to remove any doubt.
It may just be that the absence of controversy at this World Cup is the result of the use of the TMO. And being deprived of the opportunity to complain about a referee's decisions, those inclined to complain have aimed their groanings at the TMO!
By Paul Dobson