The TMO is rarely truly loved. When judged by the court of public opinion to be incorrect, he is scorned. As he is if he makes a decision that is correct by the letter of rugby law but which perhaps isn’t entirely clear to many fans sitting on their sofas, or in pubs and clubs where the screen is distant and the sound dim.
And even when they’re correct and make a call quickly and clearly, sometimes it still doesn’t feel quite right. Your team might have crossed the line, it looks for all the world as if it’s a try, but once you see the referee make that little square with their hands, celebrations become muted.
Organic, spontaneous joy reduced to organised fun when permitted by the man in the TV truck.
Multiple bodies
The replay official will have some extra technological help during the World Cup.
Hawkeye
will be the suppliers, but there won’t be virtual reality replays like in tennis, cricket and GAA.
Instead, it will be an instant, multi-screen replay. Picture the scene: a player dives over in the corner amid multiple bodies. The ball appears grounded, but was the player’s foot in touch?
The other bodies block the view of the foot from the TV angle that shows the grounding, and vice versa. The guesswork is removed when trying to judge the precise timing of ball and foot. Having instant, simultaneous replays from multiple angles on the same screen is good news for the TMO and good news for the game.
Perhaps more importantly the technology will also be available to medics. World Rugby and Hawkeye told The Irish Times that medics will have tablets with access to this footage, giving them the ability to review incidents immediately both pitchside and in the head injury assessment (HIA) room. If it appears a player has taken a heavy blow to the head, the incident can be reviewed quickly, with a HIA recommended if appropriate.
Hawkeye's Kim Parker said that the technology was used in 11 Pro12 games this season, beginning with Scarlets versus Munster in February. They also conducted "blind trials" at some 2015 Six Nations games, where a second TMO sat with the Hawkeye feeds.
While it will also be able be used to assist with foul play review, one hopes this will be used judiciously.
Kane Thompson, playing for Samoa against the Barbarians at London's Olympic Stadium last weekend, took violent exception to being held back by the ponytailed Australian hooker Saia Fainga'a.
Seven minutes
Thompson would be sent off for punching, while Fainga’a received a deserved sin bin. Correct decisions all round; the issue was that it took almost seven minutes to make them.
From Thompson’s moment of thuggery at 12:28, it took until the match clock read 16:48 for the lock to receive his marching orders. There had been two lineouts and two penalties awarded in between, along with a Barbarian blood substitution made during a break in play. In real time, fully six minutes and 56 seconds elapsed between punch and card.
The TMO must tread a fine line between reviewing incidents past and paying close attention to incidents present. When it comes to foul play, there’s nothing in the TMO protocol that restricts the replay official from going back through the game. No limit on time, no limited number of phases.
Break in play
Instead, a TMO might instead ask a more subtle question: if it takes a full five minutes to find a piece of foul play, was it really clear and obvious? In Thompson’s case, the difficulty might well have been finding a break in play to both find an angle and review it.
Apart from a time limit, one might also consider a political limit if a first-half foul play incident was picked up either at, or after, half time. Even if it led to the correct decision, questions would be asked about the insulation of match officials, including the TMO, from both teams and their coaching staffs.
While it seems Thompson’s punch might have been one more for the citing commissioner rather than the TMO, be careful what you wish for.
Consider the same incident happening in the World Cup final, with the offender injuring an opponent and also scoring a crucial try in the contest. Better, surely, for the offender to be identified and sanctioned during the game rather than being suspended after helping their team to victory.
Such are some of the complexities around the job of a TMO.
Good luck, Hawkeye.
