Ben Youngs and Dan Cole have shared their views on the controversial TMO decision, which saw Maxime Lucu avoid punishment for a high tackle on Alfie Barbeary.
The For Love of Rugby hosts felt that Bath should remember the refereeing decisions that went in their favour to reach the semi-final. They also believed for the sake of the game that the TMO should have backed the decision of referee Nika Amashukeli, who was in close enough proximity to make a reasonable decision.
What happened in the quarter-final?
Bath faced Gallagher Prem rivals Northampton Saints in the quarter-final. Ted Hill scored a late try to win the game 43-41. A few minutes before, Northampton star, Henry Pollock, had been yellow-carded for slowing the ball down, despite having been cleared out illegally in the process.
Youngs and Cole made the point that if the TMO had intervened here to get the correct decision, it wouldn’t have been in the semi-final.
The balance between the correct decision and the best for the game
The England legends turned podcasters debated that if the TMO intervened for every incorrect decision, the game would last for hours. The game would be very stop-start, and it wouldn’t be a great product for fans or players.
Cole and Youngs supported the ability for referees to make decisions when they see an incident clearly and the TMO should only step in when serious misses are made.
With Barbeary taking a series of questionable high hits during the game, Youngs’ opinion does differ from the BBC documentary that he recently made. The documentary focused on the impact of head injuries in rugby and the impact on retiring players. In this sense, justifying such blatant head contact on Barbeary goes against the research that he has been developing alongside the BBC.
