Rugby World Cup 2015: World Rugby officials keen to reduce TMO time

No fewer than six TMO referrals lasting a total of 10 minutes occurred during England’s 35-11 tournament-opening win over Fiji last Friday.

Georgia coach Milton Haig, meanwhile, fears that the breaks could hinder the sport’s attempt to accelerate the growth of its global audience.

“Nobody wants games to be decided by demonstrably unjust calls but what was totally inacceptable was the time taken to make those decisions”, the 53-year-old wrote for the Telegraph. It’s the process that’s wrong. “It’s important to get decisions right on these big occasions, but let’s work out how we can do that quickly, concisely and correctly”.

“The TMO is a tool to help referees and assistant referees with their on-field calls and the referee remains the decision-maker who is in charge of the process”.

“We want to see accurate decisions, so we just get on with it”, he said, refusing to be drawn into a debate that vexed many a fan and commentator after the hosts’ scratchy win.

“It’s worth noting that just 28 per cent of stoppage time in the opening match of this Rugby World Cup was taken up by the TMO process but we are committed to reducing that time further while not compromising on accuracy”.

A World Rugby spokesman would only say to AFP: “We are confident in our match official team and their ability to apply the TMO protocols”.

And the team of four officials from Australia, England, New Zealand South Africa who sit in front of the bank of screens with God-like powers over a game’s destiny is here to stay – mainly because their decisions have been right.

Detective Chief Inspector Andy Fyfe, from the City of London Police’s NFIB, said: “This appears to be a classic lottery fraud that is using the good name of the Rugby World Cup to try and persuade people they have won a genuine competition”.

“There was a lot of ball out-of-play time so we didn’t really get going as a team which I thought was tough, but that is due to the circumstances”, he said.

Certainly other teams are hoping referees will be more judicious in consulting the TMO as the tournament progresses. But that is more hard when the game keeps stopping.

The England fly-half Owen Farrell has admitted he would have no qualms about rushing a conversion to prevent a try being ruled out by the television match official.

“England are playing these teams on home soil at Twickenham, which should give them a bit of an edge”.