Behind the scenes with a Television Match Official

First! TMo rules. You saw what happened to Thierry Henry and his hand for Gallas goal, that would never happen in rugby... leading the way.

nice to see he knows the rules!
'ball taken over the dead ball line by defending side'-TMO
'drop at 22, yes?'-ref
'erm........that's correct'-TMO
is it me or did he blatantly think it was a 5 m scrum until he heard the ref???

im pretty sure its supposed to be a 5m scrum....

"No controversy, that's the way we like it" - Must be difficult when it's things like World Cups or 3/6N games, when things can have huge repercussions.

Wow, such an easy job.

no its definitely a 22

@odd shaped balls
your completely right!he did think it was a 5 yard scrum(which it wasnt)

OOHH! Look at his shoulder go when he attempts to score! Nasty stuff. Can't tell who the Leicester player is, looks a bit like Murphy?

Annoying, even though its a video about video refereeing; they still don't show enough replays with different angles!

you saw in the lions tour you NEED good communication from the referee and TMO i remember 1 in particular ugo monye goes in the corner (it showed you during this clip) and the ball was not grounded and taking out by SA meaning it should have been a 5metre instead the french TMO couldnt get the message accross to the reff who knows what the lions could have created with that scrum instead of having the ball back in there own half?

Youd think the TMOs would have bigger tv screens.

^^ very good comment that man haha

why isnt it a 5m scrum?

heres what I think:

for this game that we see, the defender is waiting for the ball to go dead. sees the winger coming at him, jumps pass the dead ball line, foot on the ground, picks up the ball- the ball is dead. because the ball still had momentum it is considered to have gone touch in goal do to a player touch in goal picking it up while it was still moving. he was attempting to get a scrum back at the kick but was awarded a 22 the same as if he had just touched it down. should have touched it down to avoid getting hur but took the chance. He couldnt have forseen the collision or the ref's call( a ball kicked dead I believe is the ref's decision for scrumm or 22) so he made the right decision.

to the lions game:

I believe the video ref attributed the ball going dead to monye even though de villers ripped it out, same as you would count a player slapping/slamming a ball out of someone's hands as a knock-on. it seems to me that the decision should have been 5m scrum(assuming we attribute the ball becoming loose to monye) knock on by red, ball becomes dead (either by its momentum or by green's action) we return to the knock on. unless the video ref considered the ball to have moved laterally in which case monye would have iniatied the movement without any knock on and so the ball is dead from his actions.

looking at the video again it doesnt seem like anyone of that is relevant, because it seems to to me monye is held up(which should be scrum 5 to red) then de villiers rips ball dead (which a strict ref could call deliberate and award with a penalty- or at least attacking scrum 5) BUT upon further review it seems that de villiers holds up monye and then monye is dragged over the dead ball line as he is still being dragged by JP pietersen's initial tackle. so monye is over the dead ball line which means the ball is dead in his possession, green 22 drop out. very good and honestly very lucky defense by the lions and they were served well by a careful video ref.

edit: good defense by the lions. sorry if that was wordy and confusing. I clearly was frazzled by trying to string those thoughts together.

edit again: good defense by springboks

note: it was a great series all around and I dont want to be the one to start a debate about this series. lets keep it about the video and other famous tmo decisions if we must expand.