Rugby refs have an almost impossible job
We have to admit that if it wasn’t for instant replays when watching rugby it would almost be impossible to keep up with the play. The game has become so technical that use of the TMO has become a vital part of the job of officiating.
However refs still have to make dozens of decision in games without the aid of the TMO, and sometimes even when they get them right, it can seem to the untrained eye that they were all wrong.
Leinster’s latest European clash with Bath ended with controversy as the referee Jerome Garces signalled for a penalty against the visitors to the Aviva when it seemed that Richardt Strauss was the man who was the guilty party.
Bath trailed by 18-15 at the time but if they had been given a penalty and converted it then they could easily have gone on to win the game by virtue of more tries scored.
However thanks to some brilliant analysis by Brian O’Driscoll and Lawrence Dallaglio on BT’s Rugby Tonight, they have highlighted how the decision to penalise Bath was the correct and brave one by Garces.
The lads explain that Matt Garvey is the guilty party having not quite set himself up right to attack through ‘the gate’, while BOD also gives a unique insight into how Joe Schmidt alerts his players to approach the breakdown.
