When less will be more

By Scott MacLean

Regular readers will probably know I’m an active rugby referee, one of three – plus a fourth who’s done plenty of time in on and off-field roles – that occupy the Referee’s Lounge at Sportsfreak Towers. And like most we’ve done plenty of analysis over the Rugby World Cup final.

I’m not here to tell you what Wayne Barnes and his team got right (almost everything, actually), nor whether he actually apologised to Ardie Savea for that first-half penalty (he didn’t, all he said was he didn’t see it the same way the All Blacks’ talisman did), nor to follow Ian Foster’s lead and kick-off a philosophical debate about how rugby should be played (well not yet, anyway).

As it usually does, World Rugby will start a review into the game and its Laws with a view to making tweaks and trialling them in the four years before the next World Cup, in Australia in 2027.

But there’s one change they can, and should, make immediately.

Let’s wind back the influence of the Television Match Official, the TMO, or the “bloke in the suit.”

Tom Foley is a bloke who few would have heard of before Sunday morning, but his influence on the decider was immense. It takes quite something to reduce Barnes – if not the game’s preeminent whistler, then certainly in the top three – to what Scotty Stevenson described as a “replay errand boy”.

Which aptly describes the problem. Rugby has long held that “the referee is the sole judge of fact and of law during a match”, yet on its biggest stage they seem to have become subservient to someone else. That is not to put blame on Foley; he’s simply doing the job the game’s masters on Pembroke Street in Dublin have asked him to do.

Which is now too much.

Technology and video replay does have its place in dealing with the clear and obvious, but it has become apparent – at least to me – that in seeking perfection, rugby at the elite level has gotten in its own way. This is similar to football, with its microanalysis of the offside law, and has stifled rugby’s ability to be great. It pains me to say it (Reece Walsh throwing massive forward passes aside), but for the most part the NRL has it right.

So let’s wind it back and get back to basics. Our own NPC operates a fairly basic protocol, but how’s this for starters? Leave the referee to make a decision on try or no try and have the TMO sweep the last two phases and check grounding if needed like the NRL does. For foul play – and World Rugby’s current head contact position probably demands it – keep an eye on what the on field team of three might have missed, but don’t go hunting for it.

And before you ask, Sam Cane’s red card would still have been a red card.

Let’s stop sucking the joy out of the game with interminable interjections, remind ourselves that rugby is a collision sport, and remember who is in charge of a fixture.

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