Rugby World Cup 2015 - Chris Rattue: TMO rules need tweaking to avoid another disaster

Scotland's captain Greig Laidlaw stands on the field at the end of the Rugby World Cup quarterfinal match between Australia and Scotland. Photo / AP.

World Rugby leapt on Craig Joubert with indecent haste but has stood still with the more important task of preventing a similar refereeing controversy marring the 2015 World Cup semifinals and final.

Come on chaps. Break out the Rollers, tootle off to a London club, and get it sorted immediately: ie. let the TMO have more of a say.

It's not the done thing to change rules mid-tournament, and usually for good reasons of fairness and competency. But merely tweaking referees' ability to use video reviews is surely in order to avoid another 2015 World Cup ending a-la the Australia-Scotland quarter-final debacle.

Yes, fools rush in quicker than Joubert rushed off Twickenham when it comes to the use of video in sport. Despite howls of protest at just about anything FIFA does these days, football's world body has been rightly cautious in introducing anything that encourages stoppages.

As rugby union and league have found out, video reviews do not always equal accuracy and simply create new arguments. But overall, they do add precision.

So, rugby only need add "exceptional circumstances" to the TMO guidelines, and hey presto, Australia would have lost the penalty but had a scrum from which they could win the game anyway.

Yes, World Rugby was caught between a rock and a hard place, set to be dammed if they stayed silent on Joubert and dammed if they pointed out his error. But he has been hung out to dry, with a fan base now centred almost solely in Australia.

Considering he wasn't able to check the incident on video - it didn't involve foul play or scoring - it's an especially rough call from his employers who should support him and foster a good working environment for his fellow whistle blowers. Jerome Garces, Wayne Barnes and Nigel Owens - the last refs standing - might feel they have a noose rather than a whistle around their necks.

Let's be honest: rugby is so full of grey areas that had the shambolic offside incident which led to Bernard Foley's winning penalty occurred earlier in the game, it would have been a bit of hay in a haystack.

Rugby referees are under intolerable pressure including from a hefty rule book and players who squeal like babies for decisions their way. Even high definition, slow motion replays can fail to reach conclusions that three men and a dog of a system are supposed to get right every time if they want to reach home safely. It is outrageous, and only luck will prevent another debacle overshadowing the semifinals or final.

There will be TMO changes after this, you can bet on it. If video scrutiny of a marginal shoulder charge can lead to a winning penalty, as occurred last year in Johannesburg, why not use the video to untangle something like a complex offside situation before the engraver goes to work on the Webb Ellis Cup. And what possible dangers are there in allowing the man in the middle to have more of a chance of getting THE big World Cup decisions right, and right now.

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If the All Blacks win Sunday's semifinal against South Africa, they will win the World Cup. Australia are a class outfit, but they don't have the physical power to last a tournament, and never did. Argentina will take a lot more out of them in Monday's semifinal. And for all of Argentina's impressive improvements - their emergence as a quality team capable of expansive rugby is a much-needed breath of fresh air - they just can't beat the All Blacks. Not yet.

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Mmmmmm. All Black coach Steve Hansen claims Super Rugby produces better rugby players than the northern hemisphere competitions. But does this stand up to scrutiny, especially when Japan has just beaten South Africa? He makes a good point about the style producing more rounded players, but there are a lot of other factors involved and in New Zealand and Australia's case, they include the involvement of athletically gifted Polynesian players. I believe that the real reason the southern hemisphere appears to rule is that it cares about rugby more than in the north. It's a minor sport only played by certain sections of the community in most parts of the world, and that includes Europe. It's not that Hansen's argument is necessarily wrong in itself, but it is narrow. As for the issue of border controls to protect the domestic in domestic competitions, this is - again - a more complicated situation in Europe.