A worrying cohort of referees appear dependent on their TMO comfort blanket
Measured, knowledgeable criticism of a referee’s performance is worth listening to, particularly when it’s from respected former elite players or referees. I heard from one such person last week.posts, he only had to touch it down. However, Matt Carley quickly ruled a knock-on. As he saw it, Jason Jenkins had, a second before, appeared to drop the ball as he was tackled.
If Tempest was able to process precisely what had happened at such high speed then he truly has the eyes of an eagle. His role should have been to tell the referee that the event needed to be examined. The whistle had not been blown until after McCarthy touched down, so a try decision was still available.
He wasn’t on this occasion and an overreliance on the TMO risks a system failure. We will never know if a rip even crossed Tempest’s mind, as it should have, or if Carley was even aware that his scrum decision might have been wrong. At present the referee makes an on-field decision, try or no try. In this case it was the latter. There must be clear evidence to overturn such a call. There is a further option, to say he’s unsure, unsighted, so no call. It’s a better starting point when he can’t judge that the ball is grounded and over the line.
Reducing the remit has the potential to increase errors and something tells me that coaches are not suddenly about to become more understanding supporters of refereeing errors. Officials are under immense pressure from coaches and from attacks on social media, which make it extremely difficult to radically change things.
Leinster-Rugby Joe-Mccarthy Toulouse Champions-Cup
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