The Six Nations experience might be improved if referees showed less tendency to deliberate decisions with the television match official (TMO), rugby 's answer to football's video assistant referee (VAR).
However, retired official Nigel Owens feels the TMO is a more effective system due to the way in which it's implemented, specifically in regards to how fans are made aware of why decisions are made.
On the eve of his second Six Nations tournament since retiring from a 17-year career at rugby's pinnacle, the 50-year-old believes both sports can learn from one another in order to perfect their respective crafts.
And in particular, Owens would like to see the TMO used less frequently by referees as a reference point, even if football is, as he sees it, "a far less complex game."
“TMO works better than VAR in the way that people know what’s happening,” Owens told William Hill.
“When you put a decision up in rugby, it’s explained and shown why the decision is given or changed so that everyone watching the game in the stadium or at home knows exactly why the try was disallowed because he’s knocked it forward. You may not agree but you know why the decision has been made, so it’s better in that context.
“In football, when you’re in the stadium you don’t know why the goal is disallowed. Fans can’t understand it, which is why they get frustrated because they think there’s nothing wrong with the decision, they haven’t seen it again. But if they had seen it again and the referee explained why you are offside, whether they agree with it or not, it’s offside. So, the TMO works better in that way.
“But the way it doesn’t work better is it’s used too much in rugby. Football use it much less than we do, though they can definitely use it more effectively like we do, so there’s pros and cons for both. Rugby is more understandable and easier to follow the decisions thanks to TMO, but it’s used too much. Football is using it far less than we do, although it’s a far less complex game.”
The Welshman concedes there are big calls to be made in rugby that are "humanly impossible for a referee" to judge correctly, with so many deciding factors involved in any single scenario.
Football uses Hawk-Eye goal-line technology to decide whether the entirety of the ball has crossed the line in any scoring situation, an almost perfect science that takes responsibility out of the referee's hands.
The human element involved in VAR comes into play when judging whether a foul constitutes a penalty, for example, and it's here when fans can often be left out of the loop.
Rugby referees are in constant contact with their TMOs, and conversations to determine decisions are often broadcast for audiences to hear in full, along with footage and camera angles of the incident in question.
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However, Owens suggested the TMO should only be "a last resort," adding rugby now involves "too many stops and starts and games lasting two hours because of looking at things that don’t really need to be looked at.”
South African Jaco Peyper will be the first referee up for scrutiny at this year's Six Nations, tasked with officiating a high-pressure duel between Ireland and titleholders Wales in Dublin.
England, meanwhile, are out to recover from last year's dismal fifth-place finish with a run at this year's title, though a recent raft of injuries and positive Covid-19 cases has reduced their ranks.
Eddie Jones ' side kick their campaign off with a trip to Murrayfield, where they'll face the same Scotland team that beat them 11-6 at Twickenham in 2021, their first away win over England in 38 years.
“I remember 2018 up at Murrayfield (when Scotland beat England 25-13), the only Calcutta Cup I did," Owens added. "There was a little feeling in the air that Scotland could beat England that day. The stadium was buzzing, the crowd outside, the atmosphere…
“The atmosphere that day was something very, very special. It was special to be part of that. And that’s what makes the Six Nations so special: the spectators, the crowds, the atmosphere.”
This will be the first Six Nations to welcome crowds back in full since before the global pandemic, and a full Murrayfield is sure to provide a tough opening test for title hopefuls England.
Kiwi official Ben O'Keefe will have the job of overseeing the Calcutta Cup clash in Edinburgh, where Owens would like to see the TMO take a few tips from its cousin VAR.
