Late last month, it also decided to revolt against using football’s dreaded Video Assistant Referee (VAR) and won’t implement it in their competitions after clubs overwhelmingly decided they didn’t want it.
Now this week it turns out English Premier League clubs are going to vote to get rid of it there too.
They are on to something.
Rugby should follow Sweden’s lead and become the first major sport to completely abolish the Television Match Official (TMO).
A question...
Can you say that the intervention of the TMO over the past 25 years has made the sport a more compelling viewing experience or product?
Or has it just got in the way? This is not a kneejerk reaction to one event.
Nothing last weekend or the weekend before or at last year’s World Cup ... and so on.
No doubt more decisions are correct than before but the TMO - originally brought in to decide on try/no-try - has gradually encroached further into the game.
And while attempts have been made to slash both its power and ability to interrupt games – every year it seems the approach is made to try and peg it back - no one has been willing do the ultimate thing and bin it.
Off-field reviews for yellow and red cards have been quite useful but if it were dropped, the on-field referee could simply take back the power they have at community level and enjoyed prior to the technological age.
An explanation...
Officials are hellbent on trying to speed up the professional game currently.
A noble cause. Coming in are no more scrums from free-kicks, shot clocks for various parts of the game continue to be added. All that jazz.
But the one thing that would really pace the game up is removing the longest stoppages of all (barring injuries).
While you would inevitably get some wrong decisions, the TMO still occasionally gets decisions wrong now, or at the very least open to a different interpretation.
We have been conditioned to think that having every decision right is the best thing for the game, but the reality is the product across the 80 minutes of a match decides that.
In a collision sport, controlled and played by humans prone to errors, no game can be perfect, no decisions can be right all the time.
A prediction...
World Rugby would never be so brave as to toss out the TMO. But it could speed up the game and streamline off-field sanctions.
Foul play would be subject to the referee’s eyes and his assistants. Any incidents missed or not dealt with severely enough on the park could be reviewed off–field for sanctions later if something is missed or cited, as is the case now.
A suggestion...
Rugby could also be uniquely promoted as the fastest contact sport in the world.
Or the least interrupted anyway. Putting technology in sport has made us think we’re on the precipice of perfection, when in fact the product has ultimately been lost along the way.
Sweden has it right. As they often do.
Elliott Smith is Newstalk ZB and Gold Sport’s lead rugby commentator and reporter. He’s been a sports journalist since 2010 and has travelled to three Rugby World Cups for NZME, including commentating the Rugby World Cup final in 2023.
