Scotland demand World Rugby admission over TMO call that ‘made no sense’

Scottish Rugby have called on World Rugby to openly admit that an error was made in the final stages of their clash with France.

Gregor Townsend’s men were denied a try after the television match official failed to find clear evidence that the ball had been grounded.

Referee Nic Berry felt that Scottish forward Sam Skinner had been held up when trying to place it on the ground, but a camera angle appeared to show it rolling off a French boot and onto the tryline.

100 per cent

However, the TMO had to be 100 per cent certain and he decided that he could not be sure that Skinner had scored the try.

As a result, it was disallowed and Scotland duly succumbed 20-16 to Les Bleus, ending their chances of a Six Nations Grand Slam.

Townsend stated afterwards that he wanted clarity but, according to the BBC, Scottish Rugby are seeking more than that from World Rugby.

The SRU believe that the integrity of the Six Nations could be compromised by the decision after thinking that MacNeice made a U-turn when discussing the potential score with Berry.

The TMO initially stated that he thought he saw the ball on the ground, but eventually came to the conclusion that he could not definitively say that there was enough evidence to overturn the referee’s on-field call.

“The dialogue between the referee and the TMO made no sense,” a source told the BBC.

World Rugby have, on the very odd occasion, admitted to refereeing errors, including after a Rugby World Cup quarter-final when Scotland were defeated 35-34 by Australia in 2015.

The governing body said afterwards that the match-winning penalty awarded to the Wallabies, which was converted by Bernard Foley, was a “mistake”.

“There is a need for lessons being learned so that it never happens again. This is not about Scottish Rugby being belligerent,” the source added.

Townsend’s thoughts

Townsend has already gone through the usual protocol by contacting World Rugby’s head of referees Joel Jutge and the governing body’s director of rugby Phil Davies.

“The TMO influenced the referee more [with the final call]. They have quite a big screen in that corner, so it should be the referee that decides,” he told reporters at the weekend.

“I don’t think I am being biased here to say the ball was put on the try-line, I think everybody sees that. It’s how we get to the correct decision.

“If it was held up and we’re here going that we’re gutted to have been held up to win a game, that would have been the right decision. But for us it clearly wasn’t the right decision that they came to at the end.

“It doesn’t really matter. That game moves on. We’ll get feedback, we do regularly, and that’ll be one of some incidents we’ll ask for clarification on, but it doesn’t change the outcome, unfortunately.”

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