Tigerbeat wrote: ↑Sun Mar 24, 2024 9:21 am
The TMO is in the truck with the Director but does not have direct commentary feed into his headphones. The commentary is on in the background in the van so is picked up indirectly.
All commentary feeds are cut when there is a review taking place so that it does not influence the decision.
So he can hear other commentary in the back ground even with his headphones on or are you saying that someone else pointed it out to him? Either way not buying it
Some headphones are single earcup with a microphone, certainly the Timekeepers ones are.
So farcical setup then either way,he hasn’t got direct feed but can still hear the feed and be influenced by it
Last edited by Scott1 on Sun Mar 24, 2024 10:17 am, edited 1 time in total.
"Rugby isn't a contact sport,ballroom dancing is a contact sport. Rugby is a collision sport" Heyneke Meyer
shanghaitiger wrote: ↑Sun Mar 24, 2024 9:59 am
I think I knew that the TMOs could hear the commentary. To me it is awful that he is refusing to review something because Austin Healey picked-up on it. It brings Stuart Terheege's integrity in to question, and by association the refereeing of the sport.
Imo he did the right thing. If things are sadly missed then we have to have faith in the citing commissions. We can’t have outside interference when bias too can be brought into the equation ,cut the audio feed,as simple as that!
"Rugby isn't a contact sport,ballroom dancing is a contact sport. Rugby is a collision sport" Heyneke Meyer
It isn't just the audio feed though, is it? Instant replays with slow motion and magnification also bring incidents to light that would have been missed. And, in France, there is the constant inability of the TV director to find any incriminating evidence against the home side.
It depends whether you think that all incidents (particularly of foul play) should be properly policed or, if missed, just play on.
What can be done about France I have no idea.
For me, like many others on here there are 2 questions. Did the TMO do the right thing? And should there be an audio feed from the commentary?
IMHO, regardless of where the information has come from, if the TMO sees foul play he must inform the referee and action should be taken, simple as that.
Secondly I don’t see what benefit comes from the truck having access to the commentary feed. It’s not impartial and shouldn’t be there in the first place IMHO.
All I want is a level playing field from the officiating team. That’s not even happening so I don’t think we need commentary feed affecting the TMO decision making to add confusion and potential bias in to the mix
Oakham lad born and bred, Tigers season ticket holder who is enjoying steady progression back towards the good old days!
Old Hob wrote: ↑Sun Mar 24, 2024 10:20 am
It isn't just the audio feed though, is it? Instant replays with slow motion and magnification also bring incidents to light that would have been missed. And, in France, there is the constant inability of the TV director to find any incriminating evidence against the home side.
It depends whether you think that all incidents (particularly of foul play) should be properly policed or, if missed, just play on.
What can be done about France I have no idea.
This is very true
Oakham lad born and bred, Tigers season ticket holder who is enjoying steady progression back towards the good old days!
Sadly it’s a damned if you do ,damned if you don’t situation. I’m not sure what the auditing system is like in officialdom,maybe thats something that needs to be looked into. Like in football if you make X amount of mistakes or miss things you are stood down to the Championship for a while BUT we cannot in any circumstances for whatever incident have interference by commentators or any outside parties,even if it’s foul play. Cut the audio feed from now on completely and let the officiating team rule over the match.
"Rugby isn't a contact sport,ballroom dancing is a contact sport. Rugby is a collision sport" Heyneke Meyer
Tigerbeat wrote: ↑Sun Mar 24, 2024 9:21 am
The TMO is in the truck with the Director but does not have direct commentary feed into his headphones. The commentary is on in the background in the van so is picked up indirectly.
All commentary feeds are cut when there is a review taking place so that it does not influence the decision.
The TMO is normally in a seperate van to the director who is in the scanner truck. I am not sure what the exact set up is in there. Next time i am working on a rugby OB i will ask some questions...
Austin has too much influence on the TMO in my opinion. The number of times that the man in the van has chipped in after Healey has said something is totally out of order especially as he is wrong most of the time.
It made no difference to the result in this match but Lewies was already on a yellow and should have been red carded for his assault on Farrell. He even ran past the ball to smash Farrell on the ground.
A big citing needed to make the TMO realise that his judgement was seriously wrong.
Well in the Bath game today they took no notice of Oz when he rightly commented on the forward pass for their first try. Bit like on Friday night with the knock by Gloucester in the build up to their first half try! Mind you I don’t know if it was commented on on TV as I was at the game! Still no excuse for our performance!
The officials are professionals being paid to officiate. There is no justification for not being impartial or not bringing to the refs attention any wrong doing or especially foul play or thuggery.
I believe the TMO should be restricted to bringing foul play to the refs attention. Anything else should be the remit of the referee and his assistants unless asked i.e. can you see a grounding. No need for knock ons, forward passes or anything else from the man in the van, no commentary, no interfering just wait to be asked.
I think Austin is doing his job as a co-commentator by describing incidents like this as he sees them. It would be peculiar if it was shown on a replay and the commentary team didn't acknowledge it.
It's a bit semantic, but for me, the only issue is with his calling for officials to look at an incident. Say that Lewies is lucky to get away with it, but don't tell the officials what they should do. The commentary team are, just like the players, responsible for upholding rugby's values. Accept the referee's decision and move on.
I've no problem with the commentary team commenting on incidents, its what they are there for. The problem is that the TMO should be good enough to spot these on their own and not need to commentary team to pick them up for them.
We know that some members of the commentary team have got the laws wrong previously so having them chatting away in the ear of the TMO and potentially swaying their decision is not right.
IMO thats how it should be for all decisions, whether we're talking about dangerous play or a knock on. The on field ref/linos are always gonna get the crowd and players trying to influence a decision, but thats what their training is for!
