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Ref Watch: Wales v Fiji - TMO saves referee Nic Berry's blushes

By Paul Smith
(Photo by Christophe Simon/AFP via Getty Images)

Prior to this weekend only English rugby anoraks would have known the name Stuart Terheege, but he deserves plenty of plaudits for his role in Wales’ scrappy win over Fiji.

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The long-time Premiership touch judge spent his Sunday afternoon in a TV van outside the Principality Stadium in Cardiff from where he provided TMO assistance to Australian whistler Nic Berry.

And World Rugby must be extremely thankful that the experienced Brummie was on hand to stop a couple of real howlers, both of which could have materially changed the outcome of the match.

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Siya Kolisi

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In case anyone has forgotten, former top-level scrum half Berry was the target of Rassie Erasmus’ ire following the opening Lions test against South Africa.

Three months and more have passed since that fateful day, but we are still yet to discover the outcome of the hearing into Rassie’s infamous 62-minute video critique of Berry’s display which was leaked via Twitter.

Re-reading my Ref Watch column, which was written prior to the appearance of the video, my eye is drawn to “Berry is not an official who exudes confidence and authority and he appeared happy to simply go with the flow for much of the match.”

It seems not much has changed in the intervening period, since Berry still seems short of gravitas and onfield presence. Compare his manner and management style with Nigel Owens, Wayne Barnes, Ben O’Keefe, Luke Pearce or Matthew Carley and you see chalk and cheese.

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While every referee must be true to their own personality and style they also must exude confidence and presence rather than giving off the overly laid-back air which typified Berry’s approach to this match.

Eroni Sau Red Card

Of course, being accurate also helps and had Terheege not intervened, Eroni Sau’s 24th minute red card which tipped this match in Wales’ favour, would not have been awarded.

The Fijian left winger had completed a tackle on Johnny Williams but then went back in for a second time with a swinging arm to the Welsh centre’s head.

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Terheege drew Berry’s attention to the offence, and one replay was enough for watching TV pundit Ben Kay to comment: “I can’t see any other option (than a red card).”

However, in a rabbit-in-headlights moment, Berry appeared to lose clarity on the sequence of events and become overly focused on Williams’ position on the ground providing enough mitigation for him to only award a yellow card.
At this point Terheege intervened with a major dose of clarity.

“Consider one thing – the initial tackle was already made by Fiji no.11. This is a secondary action,” he said.

A brief pause followed while Berry digested this input before he regained his composure and found the correct answer.

“It’s a secondary effort which he didn’t need. He’s made direct contact with the head with force. I guess we’re on red for that.”

Cue a huge sigh of relief from World Rugby’s Dublin HQ…

In touch or in play?

There were two tight calls to make regarding players jumping to keep the ball in play and the officials eventually got both correct.

The first of these saw Fiji’s scrum-half Frank Lomani start off the field before jumping to catch a Welsh kick which had crossed the plane of touch then landing back on the pitch. Sam Warburton hesitated in the summariser’s chair, before admitting he needed to check the law. On field play correctly continued.

Around 15 minutes later Louis Rees-Zammit was at the centre of a more controversial moment as he started off the field, jumped and tapped the ball down to Taine Basham before landing still in touch. Play continued and the Gloucester flier eventually got on the end of a flowing move to claim a try until Terheege again intervened.

As an ex-touch judge, no-one in the ground would have better knowledge of this law than Sunday’s TMO. Having gone through the RFU training some years ago, I remember everything related to touch being drilled into those present. Interestingly, the use of referees on the touch line in internationals therefore lessens the available pool of knowledge and experience among the onfield team in this area.

Law 18 relating to touch has been amended in recent times in an attempt to simplify matters. Whether this has been achieved is debatable, but the changes have certainly widened the playing area – with the corner post, for example, now being in play rather than in touch.

In this scenario, the officials have to consider whether the ball has crossed the plane of touch and where the player who touches or catches it takes off and lands.

In this instance, had Rees-Zammit landed in play, as Lomani did, play would have continued and his try would have stood.

Equally, had the ball not crossed the plane of touch, regardless of where the winger landed play would have continued because he tapped rather than caught the ball.

Replays were not 100 per cent conclusive, but on balance of probability Rees-Zammit was so far in touch that the ball was in all likelihood also on the ‘wrong’ side of the whitewash from a Welsh perspective and following the TMO intervention the correct call was made.

Rees-Zammit’s match-clincher

The TMO was also called into action to determine whether Wales’ left-winger had scored the 73rd minute try which effectively sealed the win.

Berry again did his reputation no favours by asking Terheege to check whether the scorer was onside. He quickly received a response confirming a player cannot be offside chasing his own kick!

Grounding was a tougher question to resolve – and to his credit the Aussie referee was very clear on this and correct in his understanding of law and the supporting definitions.

Contrary to what many on social media believe, it is not necessary for a player grounding a loose ball to have control of it. He must, however, have downward pressure with his torso, hands or arms.

In addition, a recent clarification has been introduced to deal with exactly this situation – the grounding of a loose ball which is also bouncing above the turf. It was in this context that Terheege and Berry both referenced there being no visible ‘separation.’

Put another way, the grounding player’s hand must be in continuous contact with the ball from the instant he first touches it to the moment downward pressure is first applied and if any gap appears a knock-on is called.

Since there was no such separation and downward pressure followed the try was correctly awarded.

Breakdown Offsides

Twice in the match Berry allowed players who were seemingly way offside to come round and steal the ball at the base of the breakdown.

When questioned, on both occasions he said the ball was out of the breakdown and therefore the offside line was no longer present.

Having looked at these calls in slo-mo I believe he got both correct since the players came from onside positions at a point when players were no longer bound over the ball.

As a ref it is easy to get fixated on the scrum-half here, and focus entirely on the point when he lifts the ball from the ground. However, this only applies when he is entering a breakdown to dig possession out – in this instance the breakdown is over and providing everyone is onside and the scrum-half is not played without the ball play should continue.

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Jon 4 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

35 Go to comments
j
john 6 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

30 Go to comments
A
Adrian 8 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

Thanks Nick The loss of players to OS, injury and retirement is certainly not helping the Crusaders. Ditto the coach. IMO Penny is there to hold the fort and cop the flak until new players and a new coach come through,…and that's understood and accepted by Penny and the Crusaders hierarchy. I think though that what is happening with the Crusaders is an indicator of what is happening with the other NZ SRP teams…..and the other SRP teams for that matter. Not enough money. The money has come via the SR competition and it’s not there anymore. It's in France, Japan and England. Unless or until something is done to make SR more SELLABLE to the NZ/Australia Rugby market AND the world rugby market the $s to keep both the very best players and the next rung down won't be there. They will play away from NZ more and more. I think though that NZ will continue to produce the players and the coaches of sufficient strength for NZ to have the capacity to stay at the top. Whether they do stay at the top as an international team will depend upon whether the money flowing to SRP is somehow restored, or NZ teams play in the Japan comp, or NZ opts to pick from anywhere. As a follower of many sports I’d have to say that the organisation and promotion of Super Rugby has been for the last 20 years closest to the worst I’ve ever seen. This hasn't necessarily been caused by NZ, but it’s happened. Perhaps it can be fixed, perhaps not. The Crusaders are I think a symptom of this, not the cause

30 Go to comments
T
Trevor 11 hours ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

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