GEORGE AYOUB has been dumped and Rohan Hoffmann demoted by SANZAR after their controversial performances in last weekend’s match between the Waratahs and Sharks.
As the game’s television match official, Ayoub made two crucial calls, disallowing what appeared a legitimate try by the Sharks’ S’bura Sithole, while awarding a contentious try to NSW winger Taqele Naiyaravoro, helping the Tahs win 33-18.
Those two calls, and Hoffmann’s general performance on the field, have been roundly panned, leading SANZAR’s game manager Lyndon Bray to take action.
We dont idiots like this and Wayne Barnes highlighting useless things and missing obvious ones.
Remember the purpose of the TMO is to only use when the referee has a serious doubt or has missed a serious incident. Note the word serious. Instead we were treated to two early examples of the TMO checking incidents so trivial in the grand scheme of things that it is a wonder that he did not bring attention to a few socks that had not been pulled up.
The first incident occurred when a pair of Fijian tacklers
lifted Jonny May up by one leg. Although he was vertical at one point,
May was gently lowered him to the floor. No harm was done and Jaco
Peyper, the South African referee, had a perfect view of the incident.
He saw nothing wrong in it.
But then the replay went up on the big screen and of course the crowd bayed for blood. Like a Roman Emperor at the colosseum, Veldsman felt that he had to satisfy the mob and signalled the thumbs down. The only saving grace was that he did not give award a yellow card.
The second incident occurred soon after as Api Ratuniyarawa, the Fiji lock, flew into the ruck with minimal use of his arms on Robshaw. Again Peyper had a view of the incident but chose not to act until the voice in his ear piped up. A slew of replays followed, the crowd groaning with boredom on each one.
World Rugby have recently urged officials to clampdown on such behaviour, but if every such clearout was penalised then rucks would cease to exist. As much as those serious cases should be penalised, physicality is an essential part of rugby’s fabric. Are these the type of incidents that the TMO was designed to police? Hardly.
Its main purpose was to check if a try had been scored, although it again took the intervention of the crowd to alert the officials to the fact that Niko Matawalu had failed to ground the ball after his sensational individual score. One replay told everyone in the stadium that. Instead, Veldsman opted for ten all showing exactly the same thing.
