There is little doubt that the TMO and getting decisions right more often is a blessing most of the time.
Wayne Barnes, for all I don't like his letter of the law above the flow and spirit of the game, demonstrated pretty well just how to use the TMO. He had possible infringements checked on fly and played on when they were OK.
That said, I wouldn't mind him going back and having them checked at the next break-down, or explaining - the crowd and viewers at home deserve to know questionable moments have been checked and reviewed as much as the players do. But a quick 10s "We looked at a possible high tackle back there and there's nothing in it," with maybe the best replay should suffice.
Then we had the England v Fiji game.
Jaco Peyper is NOT a bad referee. But, in all honesty he should never have awarded the try to the Fiji scrum-half. There were no officials near and the decision should have been "lets check, we couldn't see" and no one could have objected. A quick check, no try, no criticism. Once he has made the decision to award the try, (or to deny it) that decision should stand even if he sees a replay that shows he made a mistake as clearly as he did. Joubert did the same too (although that was the TMO's fault for not checking the whole of the try-scoring action).
The laws need to change. The referee should have three clear choices. Award a try, restart the game some other way, or call a time-out and consult with the assistants and/or TMO before making one of those two decisions. Once a try or a restart (scrum 5, 22 drop out, penalty etc.) is awarded, even if they are shown to be wrong, it is a referee error and the decision stands. Some lee-way - the referee can put his arm up (as if signalling a try) or signal some other choice (held up say) and then immediately call for advice to indicate their belief but their need to check.
On the flip-side, although it's not his fault, the recommendation from the assistant referee to check the Nadolo try was an cowardly one. Peyper, quite reasonably, couldn't see. He was close to the ruck, more than half the width of the pitch away. But that was quite clearly a try, why did we need to check? There was no hint of foul play either. Peyper wanted to award the try but the assistant recommended he check. The assistant is 2m away and has a clear view of the action. Peyper was more like 25m away and had 2 bodies in the way. Of course he's going to take that recommendation - he did exactly the right thing and should be commended, not pilloried for it. The muppet that made the recommendation should be pilloried though - what did he think he saw?
Ben Kay is of the opinion on neck rolls and the like that the public and the players will accept the referees and their assistants getting it wrong on borderline cases rather than going to the TMO on every case. While I have sympathy for this and in the long run this will be what it settles down to, I think for the first couple of weeks of the RWC we're not going to see it. Neck rolls are possibly more dangerous than most high tackles that we see these days. With a neck roll you grab someone around the neck and use that hold to roll them out of the ruck - which I imagine is as painful as it sounds, and it means it's a forward who is probably off balance and ends up with another forward landing on his head/neck. Most high tackles these days are an arm out in reflex with relatively little power or and arm which impacts high but is angled down - a lot of the power is not to the head/neck, it's spread over the chest/shoulders/arms still. It's undoubtedly more dangerous than being hit lower but the real old-fashioned head-high smacks are met by cards, often red cards straight away, and consequently have disappeared. The officials are keen to prove they're being really hot on this, and they're keen to prove they're going to be hot in terms of penalties and cards. I suspect they're also going to use the TMO a lot to drive that point home to everyone. Name and publicly shame to make sure all the players and coaches really get the message.
But will the actual TMO is a good thing, the process needs to be looked at and improved. And soon please!
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