Loose Pass

This week we will be concerning ourselves with TMO problems, other off-field official problems and administrative problems…

This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with further TMO problems, other off-field official problems, administrative problems, and on-field habits…

It was refreshing to see, after last weekend's Loose Pass, that we had no fewer than four referees in televised games around the world ask the question of the TMO: 'Is there any reason I cannot award the try?' The benefit of the doubt handed back to the attacking team, clarity of thought process apparent, more good things, yadda yadda yadda…

Distressingly, the TMO's themselves appear to have forgotten how to rule on things properly, giving a little too much advantage to the attacking team!

More specifically: we had four clear instances this weekend where TMO's could quite clearly have said: “yes, there is a reason I cannot award a try.” The most specific was in the Bulls-Cheetahs game, where Dean Greyling went to ground in a tackle, set the ball back for a ruck, had a coffee and thought about it a bit, weighed up the pros and cons, calculated some mathematical formulae, then edged the ball forward, fumbled it slightly, finally pushing it onto the tryline and looking up hopefully at Craig Joubert.

Joubert asked the 'any reason' version of the question which seemed to produce chaos in the mind of Johann Meuwesen, who seemed not to know which reasons he was allowed to adjudicate on. Instructed by Joubert that it had to be a knock-on or a try Meuwesen happily awarded the try, which frankly was a travesty considering how long Greyling held onto the ball, never mind how many actions he performed with it.

Back to that in a moment, but additionally the Hurricanes and Chiefs, despite their wins, would have reason to be aggrieved about TMO rulings along these lines with both falling foul of tries where the scorer looked to have knocked on before regathering and grounding. In Leicester, Ben Youngs performed a maneouvre that would not have been out of place in a Navy SEALS camp before reaching out and plonking the ball over the line at the third time of asking, all the while with a tackler's arm around his ankles.

So, the Meuwesen incident… remember, this is the same Meuwesen who contrived to get a New Zealand try disallowed last year for a forward scoring pass, asking George Clancy the most loaded of questions before giving him extra information. He was reprimanded for his approach. This time, he was in no mood to take such a risk, applying the letter of protocol as strictly as possible: only judge on the grounding. In fact, it seems all four TMO's went rigorously by this protocol this weekend. Well, at least we have consistency.

There was talk in December and January about extending the TMO's scope of responsibility to adjudicate over the lead-up to the try rather than just the act of grounding. We thought that too much at the time – how many phases can you reasonably go back, for example.

However, in the light of a rash of poor TMO decisions this weekend, we'd not be too displeased if TMO's would at least adjudicate on the entire act of scoring, from the moment the scorer received the ball to the moment he puts it down. We'd at least get a full ruling on a full phase, rather than the partial rulings we got at the weekend that resulted in certainly ten and possibly twenty undeserved points.

While on the subject of officials off the field, what on earth is going on with stadium clocks? Both Highlanders and Crusaders had potential reason to lodge an official complaint about the disparity between the Forsyth-Barr Stadium clock and referee Jaco Peyper's watch on Saturday, while another game over the weekend was similarly affected.

You might say that it's the same for both teams etc etc, but it really isn't, not in the days of booting the ball out deliberately for the final whistle, or for setting oneself up for winning drop goals or other such plays.

Would either team have been so forgiving if Tyler Bleyendaal's drop goal attempt had gone over and tied the game?

Best dive of the weekend: Cristiano Ronaldo? Messi? Andy Carroll? Some Italian somewhere?

No, it was none other than Bryan Habana, whose choreographed pirouette and limb-flailing fall to earth after running past JP Pietersen were both worthy of the globe's most magnificent soccer stadia.

After the game it was rumoured that Bryan's father Bernie – also his agent – took a number of phone calls from the production company behind the forthcoming sequel to 'Black Swan', hoping Habana would be able to play the part of a male ballet dancer struggling to cope with the fact he had asked too much money from the Bolshoi for them to accept him onto their roster and is now losing his starring roles at his current company…

Seriously though, if referees can white card incidents of suspected foul play and players can get suspended, surely if it's shown in an incident that a player has gone down like a ballerina that player should be suspended too? Vincent Clerc was another one to go down as though struck by an iron bar this weekend – not for the first time. It's something the game can do without.

Finally, spare a thought for those who love their rugby on New Zealand's South Island. The sinking of Otago into the mire is a tragedy.

126 years of rugby history, two NPC titles, 36 of 74 Ranfurly Shield challenge victories, victories over the B&I Lions in 1908, 1950, 1959, 1966 and 1993… even if just for the biting southerly wind that rendered matches in Dunedin perpetually icy (until they put up a new stadium with a roof anyway) and the huge bescarfed student crowds.

Otago rugby has been a mainstay of the Kiwi rugby diet for 126 years. It will surely rise again – even now the extent of the emotion the news has created is apparent in the last-gasp rescue attempt currently being mounted.

All at PR, particularly those who have been there and sampled the welcome you get down south, are crossing fingers and hoping that a catastrophe can be averted.

Loose Pass compiled by Richard Anderson