Frustrated All Blacks coach Steve Hansen has questioned the role TV producers are playing in rugby games following several controversial incidents in the All Blacks' 24-21 win over England this morning.
Replacement first-five Beauden Barrett was lining up a conversion to Charlie Faumuina's try which had put the All Blacks24-14 ahead with eight minutes remaining when referee Nigel Owens was alerted to TV footage of the try by a partisan crowd which felt the prop had lost the ball. Despite awarding the try, Owens told the television match official to check his decision.
The try stood, but Barrett missed the relatively easy conversion.
Coach Steve Hansen was annoyed at the decision and called the trend concerning.
The ability of a television director to play a part in the game mirrored a crucial decision in the All Blacks' defeat to the Springboks in Johannesburg last month.
The All Blacks appeared set to hang on for an unlikely victory, until constant replays alerted referee Wayne Barnes to a high tackle by Liam Messam on Springboks replacement flanker Schalk Burger, with Pat Lambie kicking the penalty from 55m to hand his side a 27-25 win.
"My biggest concern is not the TMO or the refs, certainly not publicly anyway," Hansen said. "My biggest concern is that TV directors are starting to have an influence on the game.
"If something goes wrong we might see a replay 10 times. The referee hasn't seen it, the tough judge hasn't seen it, the TMO hasn't seen it. We need to bring in a challenge so if a player or a coach has seen it he can challenge it but if they don't see it we don't need a TV producer to replay something 100 times. That's not in the character or spirit of the game. Referees are like players, they will make mistakes and sometimes that will cost you the game but you've got to live with that.
