{"id":595575,"date":"2026-05-21T04:39:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T04:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/595575\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T04:39:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T04:39:12","slug":"sheriff-of-french-rugby-tvs-wild-west-who-picks-and-chooses-his-replays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/595575\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheriff of French rugby TV\u2019s Wild West who picks and chooses his replays"},"content":{"rendered":"

To enter the broadcast truck of a French rugby match, particularly as an overseas television match official, is to swing open the doors of a Wild West saloon.<\/p>\n

There are walls of screens, buttons and sliders, headsets and countdown clocks, and as incidents flare on the field, there are eruptions of energetic chat between the on-field referee, his TMO and the most powerful man in the van: an infamous television director called Fred Godard, often clad in a leather jacket, puffing a cigarette. In these parts, Godard is seen as the sheriff.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a maelstrom of interaction,\u201d says Rowan Kitt, a retired TMO who spent 30 years in and out of this partisan truck. As French tries go in, jubilant shouts go up. \u201cI\u2019ve been in Toulouse where I\u2019ve not been shown a clear grounding, as the whole truck is celebrating the try,\u201d another highly experienced TMO says. \u201cI can personally vouch that they sometimes forget to speak English, when I know they can.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Television\u201cWhen things got very patriotic, replays that clearly a TMO needs might be missing,\u201d Kitt saysMichael Regan\/World Rugby via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The television truck serves a dual purpose. It is where broadcast directors and their production assistants sit, alongside the TMO. Often it is situated in an outside broadcast van in the stadium\u2019s car park, or in a purpose-built room within the ground itself.<\/p>\n

The television production system in France is more basic than elsewhere, comprising two screens \u2014 the live feed and a five-second delay. One director is in charge of all replays, often making them the sole arbiter of fairness and, sometimes, welfare.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s absolute carnage,\u201d Kitt adds. \u201cWhen things got very patriotic, replays that clearly a TMO needs might be missing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unwelcoming? Sure. Conducive to a productive day\u2019s work? Unlikely. Fit for elite sport, where results have expensive consequences and player safety is paramount?\u00a0Non.<\/p>\n

Rugby\u2019s \u201cFrench television director\u201d trope has endured through professionalism: the stereotype of a man, as one former official puts it, who is \u201clooking at an attractive woman in the crowd, rather than someone taking a player\u2019s head off\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sale Sharks, Northampton Saints, Harlequins and many other European clubs have lists of recent incidents they feel were ignored by\u00a0monsieur le directeur.\u00a0\u00a0Bath were dismayed that Bordeaux B\u00e8gles got away with hitting Alfie Barbeary high<\/a> in the French side\u2019s home Champions Cup semi-final. Officially, none were deemed as red cards after the match, but the referees wanted more replays to review.<\/p>\n

\"RefereeBarnes lost contact with his TMO in the final stages of a France-South Africa match, with France having just scored a tryJean Catuffe\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

In November 2022 Wayne Barnes lost communication with his TMO when France scored a 74th-minute try to beat South Africa 30-26. The line reappeared after Thomas Ramos had missed the conversion. A year earlier, in the Champions Cup semi-final between Toulouse and Bordeaux, the France hooker Julien Marchand flew into a tackle with no arms. Brian O\u2019Driscoll described it as \u201cthe reddest of reds\u201d and Marchand was later banned for four weeks. But at the time, there were no replays.<\/p>\n

Like many before, Bath\u2019s director of rugby Johann van Graan said that the failure to pick up Bordeaux\u2019s high shot this month lay with the faceless French director. \u201cWe need to make sure the referees have got the footage they need,\u201d he said. And yet he does have a face. For when you speak to referees, broadcasters and executives it becomes apparent that it is felt these potential issues often stem from one man: Fred Godard.<\/p>\n

\u2018No one stands up to Fred in France\u2019<\/p>\n

Godard is a senior sport director for France T\u00e9l\u00e9visions, the longstanding French rights holder of the European Cup and Six Nations matches on their soil. He directed Bath\u2019s match in Bordeaux. \u201cWhen I saw Fred\u2019s name my heart would sink,\u201d a TMO says.<\/p>\n

He is described by colleagues as \u201chighly strung\u201d, \u201ca powerful man\u201d and an \u201cold school\u201d director. \u201cNo one stands up to Fred in France,\u201d one industry insider explains.<\/p>\n

Even Godard himself has declared his biases. In an article published by\u00a0T\u00e9l\u00e9rama, a French cultural magazine, before the 2019 Six Nations, Godard proudly showed his hand. \u201cThe referees of an England-France match don\u2019t see the same replays as those of a France-England match. I\u2019m a bit of a patriot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He then explained how he had hidden a hit from a Castres player during a European game. \u201cThe video referee asked me for the footage\u2026 Ah! I didn\u2019t have it. If I had been English, I would have had it.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are other French directors, who work well for Top 14 broadcaster Canal+, and beIN Sports, but Godard is the king of France TV. Although he has remained in post for Six Nations and Champions Cup matches in France, he was not selected to direct his home World Cup in 2023\u00a0when\u00a0World Rugby spent thousands installing a system for TMOs and replays via HawkEye.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"FredGodard was not chosen to direct in his home World Cup three years agoAlamy<\/p>\n

The Six Nations has started producing more matches in-house, at a cost of about \u00a3200,000 per game. And for the Champions Cup final in Bilbao, between Bordeaux and Leinster next Saturday, European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) has appointed an independent UK-based television director because there is no Spanish host broadcaster.<\/p>\n

So could EPCR call time on France TV, who pay for the rights to the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup? \u201cIt would take a strong person to do that,\u201d a source says. \u201cBut if I was the head of broadcasting there or at the Six Nations, I\u2019d have conversations with France TV about whether Fred is the right man.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bath\u2019s chief executive, Tarquin McDonald, wrote to fans last weekend to say they will challenge EPCR to \u201cupgrade the technology it deploys to bring it in line with other global elite competitions\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Bath'sBath want to challenge EPCR to upgrade its technology in the aftermath of the controversial Bordeaux gameROMAIN PERROCHEAU\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Kitt\u00a0says: \u201cAll this does is put fans off, through elongated processes, and it\u2019s essentially unfair. Other countries might copy them and act in favour of the home team, which is unacceptable\u2026 in my view the referee should say, \u2018The game will not restart until we see the correct angle.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

EPCR sources remain confident in France TV\u2019s ability to broadcast their matches, and believe they have had no major issues this season, despite the flare-up in the Bordeaux v Bath match. They are determined that France TV does adhere to their broadcasting standards. The Six Nations is happy to continue using France TV too.<\/p>\n

Anonymity, accountability and accuracy<\/p>\n

Generally, good people work hard in these television trucks despite viewing the system as \u201ca mess\u201d, with varying processes across competitions. It is not all bad news.<\/p>\n

When England beat New Zealand 19-7 in the 2019 World Cup semi-final, Ben Youngs scored a legitimate-looking try, until the television director spotted a tiny knock-on and broadcast it to the referee, Nigel Owens, who struck off the try. That director was English.<\/p>\n

The 2023 Six Nations produced a glaring error. James Lowe scored an acrobatic try for Ireland against France in a 32-19 win. With a directive to quicken the game ringing in their ears, the television crew missed broadcasting the vital angle which proved Lowe\u2019s foot clearly was in touch. The responsible operator was stood down for 18 months.<\/p>\n

\"IrelandLowe\u2019s try against France was allowed to stand despite his foot being in touchBrendan Moran\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want their cake and to eat it; speed and perfection,\u201d Kitt says. Is flow or infallibility more important? \u201cWe\u2019ve stuffed the game with so much detail there\u2019s almost no middle ground,\u201d one top referee says.<\/p>\n

Bordeaux v Bath had a sky-high 41 minutes ball-in-play time and yet many bemoaned a lack of TMO intervention, having also criticised last year\u2019s Northampton v Bordeaux Champions Cup final for too many stoppages. Players appealing and dropping down after head contacts to force reviews challenge officials further.<\/p>\n

Despite social media abuse, referees and TMOs do not want to be anonymous like VAR football operators, but say \u201cwe should not be held accountable when the system doesn\u2019t allow us to do our job\u201d.<\/p>\n

TMOs asked to run their own replays, to cut out directors, but it was seen as too costly to send more of them to games. Clunkiness comes from huge variations in kit, so all they ask for is consistency \u2014 like teams do of them. Referees make far fewer mistakes than players.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s still human fallibility,\u201d Kitt says. \u201cIf you want AI refereeing, be my guest, but it\u2019ll make it a different spectacle. There must be enough money to avoid these issues. If it\u2019s more of a joke than in the Bath game, the sport is in big danger as the players won\u2019t feel safe.\u201d <\/p>\n

France TV declined to comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To enter the broadcast truck of a French rugby match, particularly as an overseas television match official, is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":595576,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-595575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595575\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/595576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}