RateTheRef

Along with a few others, I have previously commented that the football authorities could well draw on the experience of other sports, especially rugby union, to help overcome the teething problems as well as the whole principle of VAR to assist referees.

Seeing the end of Saturday's international when England were denied what would have been a winning try in the closing seconds following the intervention of the TMO, I am not quite so sure now.  The disallowed try was disallowed for offside after initially being awarded by the on field French referee Jerome Garces.  In The Times, former international referee Rob Debney says that it was both a wrong decision and a breach of protocol.  My knowledge of the technicalities of the offside law is so limited, I can't comment on whether or not it was offside but it was generally acknowledged to be a very close call.  Debney makes a strong case that the scorer was not offside but I won't attempt to summarise his argument which is very technical. The TMO, a South African I think from the accent, clearly told the referee after several replays that he must reverse his decision to award the try although, as Debney points out, the decision to award a try, under the regulations, must be made by the referee and not by the TMO.  He also says that the TMO relied on replays from only one camera which was at an angle creating a false perspective whereas the referee had a perfect view of the incident.

I guess, even with video evidence, mistakes may still be made but, whatever the technical evidence available, the human element will still always have an impact.