The South Terrace is a new series from The East Terrace editor James Stafford (@jpstafford), taking a less satirical look at the game
In 2001 rugby, traditionally the most conservative of sports, took the giant leap forward to allow the use of television replay technology to help referees determine whether a try had been legitimately scored.
Fifteen years later and barely a half (let alone a game) seems to go by without some kind of controversy or debate about either poor implementation of the TMO by officials or confusion over non use of the TMO by officials.
Completely predictably, we’ve exchanged one set of controversies for another. What used to be human error in real-time, is now human error in repeated slow motion. What used to be the error of one man, is now the error of a technology backed team.
However, the TMO genie is not only out of the bottle, it’s smashed the bottle it came from. It’s never going away.
What’s astonishing is that 15 years after it first began regularly halting our games it is still being used so poorly and so inconsistently. Perhaps the most irritatingly persistent gripe for fans is the frequent odd choice of angles used to make a decision.
Take Scotland’s opening try against Georgia last week. It’s a classic example of illogical choice of camera angles and bizarre referee requests.
At the end of the eighth minute of play we got our second try of the game and the second use of the TMO (we spent 1 minute and 43 seconds awaiting the first decision on Vasil Lobzhanidze's early score).
Tommy Seymour and Lobzhanidze race into the goal area chasing a kick ahead. Watching in real-time is seems Seymour gets there first, but it’s hard to tell if he grounded it as the ball shoots out from under his hand. It’s a fair call to go to TMO from referee Matthew Carley.
But after that the decision making goes downhill.
The first TMO angle is from behind the try line, but above pitch level. It’s a very good angle. The second angle, however, is ideal. It’s not only ground level behind the try line, the incident happens right in front of the cameraman.
Watching it at the time I was pretty much prepared to bet my soul, or at least the soul of an enemy, that a better angle was not going to be available. Any other angle at this point is going to simply hold the game up. But it’s rugby and its TMO time, so we charge ahead regardless.
But this is where it gets odd. Carley asks to see the incident at “full speed”. This is something increasingly common these days. Whilst it makes sense in tackle situations, where a hard tackle can look far worse in slow-motion that in real-time, it makes little sense to me in this kind of incident. You have a bobbling ball, two sets of hands diving at it and the ball shooting off after the supposed touchdown. It’s the exact time you need slow motion.
So while we then get another viewing of the best angle, this time we get it at full speed. It’s as useless as an offload in a Warren Gatland game plan, because, well, it’s at full speed. So we are unable to distinguish anything.
Next follows a pointless replay from the main broadcast camera - which is pitch side on the far touchline. It adds nothing to the debate.
It’s clear the ground level angle (in slow-motion) is the one to use. So after bizarrely asking for the full-speed replay a moment ago, instead of now asking for a repeat of the slow-motion version of the same angle, Carley now asks for “any other angles”. Seemingly hoping somehow he will find a better one to make a call from. From where he expects that to be, I can’t imagine.
After a pause, and just as the officials are about to make a decision, the broadcast director offers up another angle. It’s not the worst angle ever, but it is the third best of the four offered so far. We see it in slow-motion.
But Carley again wants another useless full speed replay, stating: “The Scottish player gets there first, does he get downward pressure?”
So, as is Carley’s want, he gets a comically useless full speed repeat replay to pass judgement on. It’s utterly inconclusive. And from that utterly inconclusive view, after a delay of two minutes and 41 seconds, he awards the try.
Perhaps, aware he has spent four minutes and 24 seconds with the TMO in the opening eight minutes of game time (mainly looking at the wrong replays at the wrong speed), he just wanted to get on with it and put fans out of their misery.
But it made no logical sense to ignore the second replay used (ground level, yards from the incident) and to not ask to see it again in slow-motion. It makes a mockery of the whole procedure and is a poor reflection of how little TMO decision making has evolved since 2001.
And worst of all, for what it’s worth, it really didn’t look much like a try.
Time spent on TMO for try decision: two minutes 41 seconds
- First replay: Slow-motion, behind the goal (raised)
- Second replay: Slow-motion, behind the goal (ground level)
- Third replay: Full-speed, behind the goal (ground level)
- Fourth replay: Slow-motion, main broadcast camera (near touchline)
- Fifth replay: Slow-motion, touchline (far wing, ground level)
- Sixth replay: Full speed, touchline (far wing, ground level)
Referee: Matthew Carley (England)
TMO: Simon McDowell (Ireland)
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