Kick-fests will make us all turn off the TV

INTERNATIONAL rugby is the peak of our sport, and World Rugby has to act on the questions that were raised by the 2021 Lions tour – or watch its showcase events lose their sparkle and have the audience reach for the off button.

- JEREMY GUSCOTT

I really enjoyed the 2019 World Cup. It was a great competition which allowed teams like Japan and Fiji to play some brilliant attacking rugby, and also produced one of the great semi-final performances when England beat New Zealand. By comparison, the other semi-final between South Africa and Wales was a bit of a damp squib.

However, even though I’m an England supporter through and through, I’m also a supporter of rugby in general, and I like to see the other side’s point of view. My conclusion on the outcome in the final was that the Springboks stuck to their game plan, lifted their power game, and were worthy winners.

Two years on, the Lions tour of South Africa was not such a good showcase. In the Second Test, if you were a neutral, it was just so boring that you would have switched channels or turned it off.

Instead of watching an event that highlighted the best Rugby Union has to offer, we watched it degenerate into a farce because of the way in which the TMO was used.

The last thing you want is a referee saying to the TMO, “What do you think?”. That is what happened, and, as a result, the officiating in the Second Test was a mess.

The TMO is there to provide the referee with a good view of the main camera angles, especially any that he has not seen, so that the referee can make the most accurate ruling. The TMO is not there to make the decision for the referee, but to give him the clearest impartial information possible on which to make it.

What unfolded in this series was that the referees were being heavily influenced by the TMO, which was not right. It is the referee who should be making the big calls not the TMO.