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Gregor Townsend felt Scotland were robbed of victory over France as he expressed bewilderment that the officials failed to award them a try in the last action of a dramatic Murrayfield showdown.
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Les Bleus claimed a 20-16 win in Edinburgh to get their Guinness Six Nations campaign up and running – but only after referee Nic Berry and TMO Brian MacNeice spent several minutes deliberating over whether home substitute Sam Skinner had grounded the ball on the try-line before deciding that it had been held up by the boot of French replacement Yoram Moefana.
Scotland’s supporters, players and staff – having seen pictures of the incident on the big screen – were convinced they were about to be awarded a match-winning try, and the officials were loudly booed by the home crowd when they stuck with the original call not to give the score.
“We were celebrating in the coaches’ box having seen the pictures of the ball being placed down on the tryline after having been on the player’s boot,” said head coach Townsend, visibly angered.
“That was also after hearing the communication to the referee from the TMO to say that the ball started on the foot and then went on the ground.
“The ref then says, ‘I can also see that (ball) on the ground’ then their last interaction was ‘hang on, let’s look at that other angle….yeah, it’s inconclusive now, stick with your on-field decision’.
“It was TMO-driven. If the referee is seeing the pictures we were all seeing in the stadium, maybe it’s on his shoulders as well to say, ‘that’s the ball down, that’s a try’. But the TMO was the one who changed his mind and said, ‘stick with your on-field decision.’
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“I don’t understand the rationale. When you see the pictures, and when you also see the conversation, they have already said between them that the ball has been placed on the tryline.”
The Scots led for most of the match after taking a seventh-minute lead through Ben White.
France, who also scored a first-half try through Gael Fickou, managed to survive 10 minutes with 14 men after Uini Atonio was sin-binned just before the break and eventually got themselves ahead for the first time in the 70th minute through Louis Bielle-Biarrey’s try.
“I’m absolutely gutted for the players,” said Townsend. “The way the game was going in the second half, I didn’t think there would be any points scored at one stage – we were in control.
“But we did make an error that led to a scrum that led to a try. At the time, I thought it was going to be really difficult to score the required five points.
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“It was then a fantastic effort to win the ball back, for Kyle Rowe to make his break and for Finn (Russell) to win the ball back and set us up on the tryline.
“The emotions straight after that when I saw the pictures were, ‘what a fantastic win, what a team to come back.
“To play so well, go behind and come back, what a great victory for our supporters, then it’s taken away from you.
“It’s sport, we know that, and we have to be better. That’s why you play and coach – to win but also to get better. We have to make sure we take winning and losing out of the hands of referees and TMOs.”
Asked if he felt the officials had done their jobs properly, Townsend said: “I’ll leave that to you guys to decide.
“All I can say is that we were celebrating a win, our players and a lot of our supporters were by the pictures we saw. We could hear the conversations.
“Gavin Hastings (former Scotland international) was in front of us, and the media were turning round a few times as well to ask, and I’m saying, ‘yeah, it’s a try’.
“I’ll leave it to you guys to make any comment more than that, but we believe it was a try.”
Laws state that if the on field decision is no try, under the protocol the TMO must find clear and obvious evidence from the available broadcast angles of grounding on or over the line to award the try.
Does the TMO need to see conclusive evidence of THE PLAYER grounding the ball?
Does the conclusive evidence need to be VISUAL?
So even if we see the ball apparently on the ground does the TMO need to see player clearly exerting down pressure on the grounded? If so then technically correct call.
If there just needs to be conclusive evidence (not necessarily visual) then they must aware the try (as no other possibility is possible).
IMO the question should be: if a referee had this view of the play in real time would he have awarded the try? Again the answer is yes.
I think there needs to be an ‘I don’t know option’ from the ref with the visual display allowing ref or TMO to make a call as if real time.
I think the frustration felt by many is that the tmo said the ball was on the ground and the ref then agreed he saw the ball on the ground - if you take that at face value then the try should have been awarded. To then say no clear evidence to award the try is totally inconsistent. Big picture wise this. it confuses the hell out of those who are either casual or new followers of rugby and potentially turns them off to the game. Given that the game is really now a big money entertainment business I do wonder in this case if the ref/tmo need to front up and explain their decision making - by doing so it would show respect to those who pay good money to see these games.At the same time it would be a way of minimising the type of abuse referees have been getting recently.
While it is quite clear that the ball touches the ground, one pundit made the point that a lot of people overlook, myself included, on the slow mo replays you don’t know when the whistle was blown. The ball might have been on the boot when the whistle was blown and then rolled onto the ground after. Just thought it was an interesting different perspective. As Finn Russell said post match though, it was their responsibility to ensure the game wasn’t so tight that the outcome could be decided by a 50-50 ref call in the 84th minute
Townsend is right, scots were robbed…
But Townsend is not complaining that DVDM got away with an obvious offside on his own goal line that should have been a yellow card
Stop whining. The evidence was not enough to overturn the on-field decision.
Nothing controversial here. 💩 happens. Get over it.
And, next time, make sure you don’t need a four minute TMO review to win the match.
I think that TMOs are probably scared making these calls at this point because of all the backlash they get from the public when it’s perceived to be the wrong decision. I think in this case it was pretty obvious the ball was on the ground, though. Dunno how it can be made easier to get to the right decision.