Exclusive: Unseen TMO footage proves Junior Wallaby was CORRECTLY red-carded despite lack of live video evidence
Australia's Cooper Watters illegally clears out New Zeland's Finn McLeod during the u20 Rugby Championship.
Referee Hanru van Rooyen has come under fire for his decision to issue a 20-minute red card to Australia’s Cooper Watters during the U20 Rugby Championship clash with New Zealand.
The South African official issued the red card on the advice of his TMO Egon Seconds, but many spectators were left puzzled by the decision, as the incident looked to only meet the yellow card threshold.
However, Planet Rugby has obtained footage that Seconds used to advise Van Rooyen on the ruling, which was not shown by the host broadcaster, SuperSport, during the match.
Cooper Watters’ sending off
Chris Whitaker’s side took a commanding 24-12 lead into the half-time break of their opening game of the U20 Rugby Championship clash against the defending champions, New Zealand. But the Junior Wallabies squandered that 12-point advantage and eventually fell to a 34-29 defeat at the hands of their trans-Tasman rivals.
This was partly due to Watters’ sending off after the winger’s dangerous clearout on New Zealand’s Finn McLeod when the Aussies were on the attack inside the opposition’s 22.
Referee Van Rooyen immediately blasted his whistle twice after seeing what unfolded at the breakdown and called upon TMO Seconds to review the incident.
“Egon, I’m coming up to you,” the referee said. “We are dealing with a leg inversion from 11 Australia. My live view is that he lifted the guy’s feet past the horizontal, and the guy landed on his shoulder area.
“So I’m on a penalty and a yellow card at the moment, so could you please check that the facts are correct?”
After seeing a few replays, Van Rooyen believed that his initial judgment was correct but checked with his TMO again, saying: “There is a clear leg inversion, past the horizontal, and the player lands on the shoulder area, is that correct?”
TMO’s intervention
However, Seconds had another angle that was not shown on the big screens at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, and was not broadcasted, to conclude that McLeod had, in fact, landed on his head.
“Hanro, he lands on his head,” the TMO replied. “I can confirm that he lands on his head.”
Upon hearing that confirmation, Van Rooyen changed his initial decision, stating that “I’m going with a 20-minute red card.”
“It’s a high level of danger,” the referee explained to Australia’s captain Tom Robinson and Watters after reiterating what he had witnessed.
“And the player lands on his head area, so it’s going to be a 20-minute red card.”
Robinson, the son of World Rugby chairman Brett Robinson, was shocked by the referee’s ruling, replying “What?'” “It’s a high level of danger, and he lands on his head area,” the referee stated again.
Veteran SuperSport commentator Matthew Pearce was understandably surprised by the decision, having seen the same pictures as the viewers, which appeared to show McLeod landing on his shoulders rather than his head.
“Well, there is some expression of disbelief both from the player and his captain, Tom Robinson,” Pearce remarked.
“I would suggest that the one bit of mitigation would be that Finn McLeod actually made contact with another player in the action, so it would have affected his balance. But anyway, Cooper Watters has been shown a 20-minute red card.”
Unseen footage proves the officiating team’s decision was correct
In the aftermath of the result, there has been commentary around the footage that the TMO was seeing and what was broadcasted with the officials coming under some unfair criticism.
However, Planet Rugby has obtained the footage below that clearly shows Watters lifting, twisting, and then driving McLeod with the New Zealander going headfirst into the ground, leaving the officials with no choice but to issue the 20-minute red card.
What this incident does prove is that TMOs do have additional angles that the broadcasters don’t always provide to the viewers. Like in this case, that can cause confusion for the commentators, who can only comment on what they are being shown, with the same being true for the viewers.
In this case, the officials have got the decision spot on with Van Rooyen rightly trusting the call from his TMO, who had the best angle of the incident, but unfortunately the broadcasters did not provide the referee and players with the correct replay on the big screen or to the viewers.
This publication received the footage of the incident in order to illustrate this point, as the officials clearly made the correct decision to issue a 20-minute red card, but the images shown on the day did not align with what the TMO was seeing.
This is not a one-off occurrence, as often the TV broadcasters are not showing the same angles that the TMO is referencing, which can add to the confusion over decisions. Credit in this case must go to Van Rooyen for trusting that factual information was provided by his TMO, despite the broadcasters not producing the correct angle of the incident.
Watters is now set to face a disciplinary panel for his actions and could face a ban for his act of foul play contrary to law 9.18, which reads: “A player must not lift an opponent off the ground and drop or drive that player so that their head and/or upper body make contact with the ground.”
World Rugby’s sanctions guidelines for foul play law 9.18 suggest the following suspensions: Low-end: 6 weeks, mid-range: 10 weeks, top-end: 14+ weeks, and a maximum of 52 weeks.
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Coming up in the U20 Rugby Championship
Watters’ sending off meant that Australia played most of the second half with at least one less player than New Zealand and their woes were compounded when Angus Glover joined Watters on the sidelines when he was yellow carded for illegally slowing the ruck after a length-of-the-field break.
Australia had scored a try after Watters’ red card, but New Zealand rallied in the final quarter, playing against 13 men, scoring through Haki Wiseman, Caleb Woodley, and Logan Williams to secure the victory.
Round two of the U20 Rugby Championship kicks off on Sunday May 3 with New Zealand taking on Argentina before South Africa and Australia collide in the later kick-off with all of the tournament’s matches taking place at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Gqeberha.