The United Rugby Championship’s head of match officials has admitted on TV a crucial try which was controversially disallowed on the weekend should have stood.
And he's confirmed officials who show a continued track record of poor decision-making will be taken out of the firing line.
It looked as though Ulster were going to record a notable victory away to the Stormers when replacement prop Callum Reid forced his way over the line just two minutes from time in Cape Town, with Italian referee Gianluca Gnecchi initially awarding the try. But, as the conversion was being lined up, South African TMO Quinton Immelman then intervened, calling on Gnecchi to take another look at it, and after lengthy debate and numerous replays the score was ruled out for a knock-on by Reid.
Following pleas from Ulster captain Alan O’Connor, the pair looked at it once more to see if Stormers back row Hacjivah Dayimani had knocked the ball on deliberately rather than Reid dropping it, but they decided Dayimani had hit the prop’s hand, not the ball. So the try was chalked off and the Stormers held on to win 23-20, taking them up to sixth in the URC table. You can read more about how the league standings are looking here.
Ulster head coach Dan McFarland was furious after the game and now it’s been confirmed he had every right to be upset. That’s because Tappe Henning, the South African former international referee who is in charge of all officials in the cross-continent competition, has admitted the key decision was wrongly made. In an appearance on SuperSport’s Final Whistle, he said a crucial piece of information was not discussed between the referee and TMO - namely that Gnecchi’s original decision was to award the score.
“What’s hugely important here is the referee has awarded a try and it is during the process of the conversion kick that there’s additional information now visible. So now we’re looking for an infringement to overturn the referee’s original decision of try,” explained Henning.
“There was no conclusive evidence there was an infringement of a knock-on, so the original decision (should) stand. That’s the important bit: there has to be conclusive evidence that the ball goes from his hand forward to overturn the on-field decision and that’s not there. So it’s a try. The first bit, that the on-field decision was a try, was hugely important. In the process they followed, they did not revisit the fact that the on-field decision was a try, which meant they needed conclusive evidence to overturn, and that was not there.”
Henning revealed he had already talked to the officials from the game. He said: “We have a remedial process. I had a chat with the TMO to review and he needs to tell me what he saw and what his process was. I had a chat with the referee about what he saw and his process. Then I look for the flaws in their process and I advise them and help them see the important things they had to look at in this picture.
“Our process will be remedial. If it continues with poor decisions from a referee or an AR, then at some stage we will not give them appointments in the top competition and we will take them (down) to the next level to help them and up-skill them for their next performance.
“We look at the track record of the decision-making and if there is a track record of similar behaviours under pressure, then that’s when we will take them off. It’s not a numbers thing, it’s not like when a referee makes five mistakes, that’s when we act. I like to think of it as we put them in ICU and really focus on what they need to get better. That’s our process.”
