Law discussion: How much influence do TV directors have on the modern TMO
Bath's Alfie Barbeary and an inset of Bordeaux's Adam Coleman's tackle during the Champions Cup semi-final.
The influence of the TV directors on the game has been thrust into the spotlight yet again after Johann van Graan’s comments following Bath’s Investec Champions Cup defeat to Union Bordeaux Begles on Sunday.
It was very out of character for Van Graan to comment on officiating decisions, but it’s important to note that his criticism was levelled at the broadcasters rather than the match official team, as he believes French directors didn’t provide the correct angles to the refereeing group.
The South African coach conceded that the better team won on the day as his side succumbed to a 38-26 loss at the hands of the defending champions, who progress to the final where they will face Irish powerhouse Leinster.
‘Three headshots’ go unpunished
The source of Van Graan’s frustration and calls for consistency was the lack of punishment over “three headshots” on Bath back-rower Alfie Barbeary, with the head of rugby citing tackles in the “19th, 23rd, and 42nd minutes”.
He was not alone in his criticism, with ex-England internationals Lawrence Dallaglio and Andy Goode slamming the French TV directors who failed to provide the replays for fans watching, and it’s believed that the TMOs are issued with the same replays that are broadcast.
“That’s a head-on-head, that needs looking at,” Premier Sports’ commentator Goode remarked on Maxime Lucu’s hit on Barbeary in the 42nd minute, the tackle that Van Graan deemed to have been the most ‘clear and obvious’ of the lot.
“That’s a head-on-head, they missed one in the first half, whether not enough angles for the referee… It’s a yellow card at least.”
Dallaglio added: “Well, you only ever get one angle with French TV, so that’s the only one he’ll ever have.”
The three incidents JvG references. https://t.co/wsRjUOhCY1 pic.twitter.com/AV4yXFle1t
— Jared Wright (@jaredwright17) May 4, 2026
“Genuinely trying to work out what has happened here,” a baffled Goode continued.
“I’ve seen one replay, and it’s a clear head-on-head from Lucu, Ben Whitehouse is in the TMO, and the French directors aren’t showing enough replays, and if you are a Bath fan, you are absolutely raging now there is one in the first half that didn’t get looked at properly, and that’s a clear one.
“Consistency is all you want; it’s absolutely frustrating from a Bath fan perspective that has not been looked at.”
Andy Goode doubles down on French director criticism
It’s general practice that the home broadcaster will supply the imagery we see on the big screens and at home, so while Goode and Dallaglio were commentating on the fixture with Premier Sports, it was France TV’s team controlling the broadcast imagery.
Goode doubled down on his criticism on social media and claimed that the TMO only had access to the same replays the viewers were provided.
“The TMO has access to ALL camera feeds independent of the broadcast as well as the broadcast. If they couldn’t the TMO could never review stuff in the background. An explainer of how the system works is literally on World Rugby’s website. How do I know this and you don’t?” a fan wrote in reply to one of Goode’s posts, to which the ex-England fly-half replied: “You’re categorically wrong.”
The explainer referenced above reads: “For TMO services in particular, World Rugby insist that Independent Video Replay is used at all of their tournaments. This means that the selection of and control of images being shown to the referee is independent of any input from the television production function.”
However, it’s important to highlight that this is a World Rugby policy that does not automatically apply to EPCR Rugby competitions as a requirement.
French director confirms accusations were accurate
What has further muddied the situation is the resurfacing of an interview France Televisions’ director Fred Godard did with Telerama in 2019.
“When the video referee reviews a sequence, I’m the one who suggests different angles. Can I sometimes forget an angle? I have to be careful… (smiles). An Englishman supports the English, a Frenchman supports the French… I once didn’t show a hit by a Castres player in a scrum during a European Cup match. The player could have been sent off. There was a scuffle starting, we understood that the French hooker had started it. The video referee asked me for the footage… Ah! I didn’t have it. If I had been English, I would have had it,” he said.
That was seven years ago, so does the TV director have the same powers as they used to? Planet Rugby sought to answer this very question and reached out to a well-informed and placed source with extensive knowledge of the TMO set-up and relationships between the officials and broadcasters.
Do TMOs have access to angles that aren’t shown on the broadcast?
As is always the case with rugby, the answer is not a straightforward one, as the technology available to the officials differ from competition to competition, and they must pay the bill at the end of the day.
Unsurprisingly, the Rugby World Cup will get the best-of-the-best with World Rugby laying out for Crème de la crème from their approved providers in Hawk-Eye, QTV, and SMT.
In an ideal world, the TMO will have a real-time video replay system, which is located in the TMO booth and independently operated by a technician, the source explained to this publication. This system would be able to replay and rewind at any point from any given angle and would not rely on what the broadcast director is providing to the audience.
The TMO can flag incidents for the technician to collect the relevant angles and replay so that the fourth official may review them during a break in play, as they need to continue watching the live action. This is when the TMO can intervene and inform the on-field referee that an incident needs to be reviewed.
This is where the directors would come in, as they would decide which angles would be shown on the big screens to the referees and subsequently what we see on our screens at home. However, a TMO can at this point still insist that the director show the correct angle and inform the referee if the wrong angle is being displayed. The World Cup provides an exception to this as the director would ‘hand over’ the live feed to Hawk-Eye for the duration of the review.
The antics that Godard referenced above are precisely the reason why World Rugby went down this route for the 2023 Rugby World Cup and will continue to do so for future tournaments.
So, going back to Bordeaux v Bath this weekend, what systems were in place, and was the director able to influence the match as Goode and others have suggested? The short answer is no, but it’s more nuanced than that.
One source states that the Champions Cup 100% has a video replay system in place, and a visit to Hawk-Eye Innovations’ official website confirms EPCR as one of their clients.
Hint that Hawk-Eye or similar was used
If the TMO was using Hawk-Eye or any equivalent video replay system, they would have all the angles to view and would not be relying on the broadcaster. We get a hint that was the case in the 23rd minute when TMO Ben Whitehouse reviewed Adam Coleman’s tackle on Barbeary, with Nika Amashukeli stating it’s clear from the angles that “there is no clear head contact”.
Amashukeli’s live decision was that the contact was ‘chest-on-chest’ and it’s safe to assume that Whitehouse agreed with that call and didn’t have ‘clear and obvious’ evidence to trigger a review. Where Van Graan, Goode, Dallaglio, and fans’ criticism is warranted is the fact that angles that may have proven that to be the correct call weren’t shown on the broadcast, which the French TV director has control over.
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As for Lucu’s hit on the Bath number eight, there was no indication from the comms or the officiating team that it was reviewed despite the brief stoppage of play when the replays of the incident were provided by the director. Amashukeli stated that it was a ‘bump off the chest’ but there was no further suggestion that Whitehouse interjected or reviewed the incident.
Last week, Planet Rugby was provided with video evidence of foul play during the U20 Rugby Championship match between New Zealand and Australia, with footage of the latter’s Cooper Watters dumping the former’s Finn McLeod headfirst into the ground at a ruck.
This footage wasn’t shown during the broadcast, but TMO Egon Seconds confirmed to referee Hanru van Rooyen that the incident warranted a red card due to how the player landed. Seconds wasn’t reliant on the home broadcaster, SuperSport in this case, to provide the angles he needed to make the decision.
The same is true for Whitehouse, and while the angles Goode, Dallaglio, and we saw suggested that the officials may have missed certain incidents, the TMO would have had more to work with than what has been speculated.
Essentially, if the officials had the correct video replay systems, like Hawk-Eye, at their disposal – which looks to have been the case – then there was either evidence that those tackles on Barbeary were not head contacts or Whitehouse deemed them not to reach the ‘clear and obvious’ threshold to trigger a review.
The officials either got the decisions wrong or there were angles to justify the calls not to punish the likes of Coleman and Lucu. If the latter is the case, then we, as viewers, Bath’s coaching team, and the Premier Sports’ commentary were let down by the French director for not producing those angles.