Referees become TMOs

South African Referees is to experiment  with the use of on-field referees as television match officials.

The referee is the sole judge of fact and law, but when he refers to the TMO he abrogates some of the decision making when it comes to scores to somebody who is not on the field. He remains responsible for the final decision but to all intents and purposes the advice he gets from the TMO is a decision.

Now the SA referees will experiment in making the referee and the TMO the same person, leaving the referee fully in charge of the decision.

It is not far-fetched.

Beyond each dead-ball line there will be a television monitor. If there is doubt about the try, the referee signals time-out, as he does now, and then walks to the monitor, puts on earphones and tells the TV producer what he wants to see and can ask for replays and angles till he can make a decision.

The referees will received TMO training, as the top TMOs have developed methods in their assessment of an incident.

this experiment will take place in two warm-up matches for the Super 14 and in all televised Vodacom Cup matches. The warm-up matches are Stormers vs Sharks at Newlands on 29 January and Bulls vs Lions in Polokwane on 30 January,

André Watson, manager of SA referees, said: “Instead of the referees’ going ‘upstairs’ to the television match official to query whether a try has been scored, the on-field referee will be able to consult a television monitor in the in-goal area and decide for himself.

“It will follow the same protocol as a ‘regular’ TMO decision, except that the on-field ref will ‘act’ as the TMO himself.

“It’s yet another exciting venture for the Varsity Cup, and the referees involved, and I’m particularly excited to see this experiment in action as I believe we will actually see fewer referrals because the buck stops with the on-field referee – he is the one who will make the final decision, whether he calls for the TMO or not.”