NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Sport / Rugby / All Blacks

Gregor Paul: How television match officials robbed rugby of its essence

Gregor Paul
By Gregor Paul
Rugby analyst·NZ Herald·
5 Dec, 2019 11:00 PM6 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Referee Jerome Garces and his assistants Romain Poite and Pascal Gauzere while being advised by the TMO. Photo / Photosport

Referee Jerome Garces and his assistants Romain Poite and Pascal Gauzere while being advised by the TMO. Photo / Photosport

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

COMMENT:

The Buggles sang in 1979 that video killed the radio star. They shouldn't have stopped there because video has killed a little bit of rugby, too.

We hear ad nauseam how the intrusion of TV into rugby officiating has brought an uplift in accurate decision-making.

No longer do we have to suffer the sort of nonsense we used to – the kind where a referee may not see a forward pass or hand in a ruck and merrily award a try not realising the gigantic mistake that's been made.

The injustices that used to drive us mad are largely gone because the camera captures all and the Television Match Official has such a wide brief as to effectively be allowed to poke into just about everything.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

It is true, then, that rugby is less infuriating and random as a consequence of allowing footage to be part of the decision-making process and therefore fosters a greater sense of confidence about how the outcome of big games will be determined.

But it's also true that rugby has lost something in the process by allowing cameras to peer into every nook and cranny.

READ MORE:
• Rugby: Israel Folau's reported payout from Rugby Australia called 'wildly inaccurate' by Raelene Castle
• Rugby: Former Wallabies star Quade Cooper reveals confrontation with All Blacks great Richie McCaw after 2011 incident
• Rugby: Charles Piutau signs on for future with Semi Radradra
• Rugby: Scott Robertson's D-Day with New Zealand Rugby for All Blacks head coach role

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The voyeurism has gone too far as evidenced at the World Cup where the whole business of empowering the TMO to monitor foul play twisted out of control.

The intention of allowing TMO's to intervene around foul play was good. The process was initially envisioned as being collaborative with referees who could ask for a deeper inspection of something they felt they saw.

Discover more

Sport

Martin Devlin: Folau and Rugby Australia ends in a draw

04 Dec 11:45 PM
Sport|rugby

Folau's surprise lifeline from Rugby Australia

05 Dec 02:00 AM
All Blacks

'One of the dirtiest players': Quade Cooper reveals McCaw confrontation

05 Dec 01:55 AM
All Blacks

D-Day revealed: All Blacks moment of truth awaits for Robertson

05 Dec 07:00 AM

Likewise if the TMO felt an obvious act of foul play had escaped the attention of the referee, the former could make an intrusion.

But somehow that plan morphed horribly out of shape in Japan and mostly TMO's behaved as if they were working for the former East German Stasi, determined to delve into everything in the hope they could pin something, anything, on anyone.

Referee Jerome Garces and his assistants Romain Poite and Pascal Gauzere while being advised by the TMO. Photo / Photosport
Referee Jerome Garces and his assistants Romain Poite and Pascal Gauzere while being advised by the TMO. Photo / Photosport

It was tedious to the point of ridiculous because the threshold of what constitutes foul play was lowered so far as to be almost unmanageable in a highly charged collision sport.

It is possible for rugby to use cameras to help officials punish obvious acts of foul play and yet let lesser infringements go. The game does not need micro management like this as the players want thuggery stamped out yet also a licence to be able to deal with a few things themselves.

What administrators seem to have lost sight of is that the game has long had a self-policing element to it which has worked just fine.

In fact, the game needs that self-policing element as it is more effective at deterring small-scale, persistent offenders than a referee ever could be.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The sport has lost a little of its essence as a result of this Orwellian-themed world where Big Brother is always watching.

Some of the problem is that we have had to tolerate maddeningly soft and, arguably needless penalties, being awarded such as the one given against Sam Whitelock in the World Cup semi-final when he shoved Owen Farrell out of the way.

But there is another sadness which is that the game has lost its ability to induce personal rivalries that have been sparked by unseen incidents known only to the protagonists.

Historically, rugby has benefited from having blokes with grudges lining up against one another.

A reminder of this came during the week when former Wallaby Quade Cooper talked of the feud he had with former All Blacks captain Richie McCaw in 2010 and 2011.

Other than Quade, who didn't love the sense of drama and anticipation that their running war with another generated in that period?

All Blacks' Richie McCaw is tackled by Australia's Ben Alexander and Quade Cooper. Photo / Photosport
All Blacks' Richie McCaw is tackled by Australia's Ben Alexander and Quade Cooper. Photo / Photosport

Who didn't love the excitement that individual battle induced – the thrill of wondering how one would find a way to impose themselves on the other?

That whole business became more compelling than the actual results or at least the results carried more significance, because for New Zealanders the thought of the McCaw-captained All Blacks losing to a Cooper-inspired Wallabies was a little too much to bare.

Likewise, would the All Blacks' semifinal victory at Eden Park in 2011 have felt as good had it not included the total meltdown of Cooper which was a result of the pressure he was put under?

It was brilliant theatre and the rivalry between those two flourished because the initial acts that sparked the bad feeling went undetected and unpunished.

The whole thing began in Hong Kong in 2010 when Cooper cleaned out McCaw at a ruck midway through the second half when the All Blacks skipper was nowhere particularly near it.

Cooper's last flourish was an aggressive push and so McCaw lashed out while he was on the ground and swung a leg that clunked into the Wallaby playmakers' knee – studs first.

The referee didn't see. Nor did he see Cooper shove McCaw over a second time at the end of the game or slap him not so playfully on the head.

And that was the seeds sewn. The officials didn't seem to care or notice and it became an issue that both players felt they had licence to sort out themselves and so began their endless push and shove whenever they met.

They eventually worked it out. Or eventually natural justice prevailed as Cooper's confidence and form collapsed to the point where he could no longer win a place in the Wallabies.

But he hung on for long enough to ensure interest in Bledisloe tests sky-rocketed and it is hard not to long for a return to those days when officials didn't feel the need to micro manage and adjudicate every single act on the field.

Rugby was a better game when it didn't have TMO's trawling through every ruck to see whose knee may have landed on someone else or whether a body that was deliberating lingering in the wrong place was shoved out of the way.

Hopefully 2020 will bring a return to a less officious and intrusive world where players are trusted to sort out any minor issues and leave the big ticket item to the officials.

Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from All Blacks

Premium
All Blacks

'Exceeded my expectations': Barrett on transformative Irish rugby journey

04 Jul 09:00 PM
Premium
All Blacks

Where the test will be won: Why France's rookies give All Blacks an edge

04 Jul 07:01 PM
All Blacks

All Blacks captain says inexperienced French team will ‘fire everything at us’

04 Jul 06:23 AM

There’s more to Hawai‘i than beaches and buffets – here’s how to see it differently

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from All Blacks

Premium
'Exceeded my expectations': Barrett on transformative Irish rugby journey

'Exceeded my expectations': Barrett on transformative Irish rugby journey

04 Jul 09:00 PM

Jordie Barrett will seek to showcase his Irish intelligence for the All Blacks on Saturday

Premium
Where the test will be won: Why France's rookies give All Blacks an edge

Where the test will be won: Why France's rookies give All Blacks an edge

04 Jul 07:01 PM
All Blacks captain says inexperienced French team will ‘fire everything at us’

All Blacks captain says inexperienced French team will ‘fire everything at us’

04 Jul 06:23 AM
Premium
Why switching Ioane and Vaa'i could redefine All Blacks' strategy

Why switching Ioane and Vaa'i could redefine All Blacks' strategy

03 Jul 06:01 PM
From early mornings to easy living
sponsored

From early mornings to easy living

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP