Former Test referee Nigel Owens has stated that the television match official was incorrect to intervene in the incident which led to Louis Bielle-Biarrey’s fourth try during the Six Nations finale.
England were leading 39-38 and had a scrum just inside the France half when Jack van Poortvliet threw the ball out.
It touched Francois Cros’ hands and referee Nika Amashukeli immediately signalled a penalty advantage for a deliberate knock-on.
However, the TMO intervened and communicated to Amashukeli that it was not deliberate, which led to the sanction being reduced.
Not heard by England
That communication was not heard by a number of England players and, thinking they had a penalty, went for a speculative kick.
France then collected the ball and countered with Bielle-Biarrey outpacing the cover defence and touching down.
“Personally, I would have stuck with my on-field decision. I would have given what I’ve seen,” Owens said on World Rugby’s Whistle Watch show.
“You have two options. You either say to the TMO: ‘No, I’m happy with this’, and then you carry on or you go, ‘look guys, I got this wrong so the fair thing to do here is I’m going to go back and it will be scrum your (England) ball from the knock-on’.
“That is, for me, the right thing to do.”
A TMO is allowed to come in with the game still live when the referee has missed something, but a sanction had already been awarded by Amashukeli and it was not a clear and obvious error.
“What the officiating team will learn from this is that scenario; you stick with your on-field decision because the TMO was actually outside of protocol – you can’t come in for that, it is not within protocol,” Owens said.
It was a unique situation and one Owens hopes is refereed differently should it happen again.
“Let’s say he does come in and you change your mind, I think you’ve got to say: ‘Hang on lads, it’s a bit messy, we’ve got it wrong, knock-on only, scrum England ball’. That would be the fair thing to do,” he said.
“France probably wouldn’t have scored from that.”
France pip Ireland to title
It had a potentially significant impact on the encounter with France going on to claim the Six Nations title with a 48-46 triumph, leaving Ireland, who they pipped to the trophy, and England frustrated.
“There’s a lot of things to learn from that, from people watching the game, from a player’s perspective as well – just to bear in mind decisions could be changed with the TMO.
“Technology and the TMO has its place in the game quite rightly. Sometimes it’s so tight… so you basically need a TMO to get that right, but all these are in the act of scoring and that’s what I would like to see more of – just the TMO used for the act of scoring.
“Without the TMO, I guarantee you the referees will get most decisions themselves and get them right. But because the TMO is there, this is where we’re having an issue sometimes.”