RFU referees admit Austin Healey had no influence on TMO decision but made ‘regrettable’ mistake

The Rugby Football Union has claimed the Television Match Official, who did not investigate potential foul play against Saracens captain Owen Farrell because it was highlighted in TV commentary, was unimpressed by TNT Sports pundit Austin Healey’s comments.

But the Professional Match Officials Team (PGMOT), which investigated the incident during Saracens’ victory over Harlequins at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday, described it as “regrettable”.

TMO Stuart Terheege was caught on a hot mic during the broadcast discussing why he didn’t want to check out a potential foul episode involving Farrell. The former England captain was apparently caught off the ball by Harlequins’ Stephan Lewies, who received a yellow card.

“My problem right now is that Austin seems to have instigated this, because we’re late, so I don’t want to talk about it, okay,” Terheege was heard saying over the hot mic?

After a replay of the incident was later shown by TNT Sports, Terheege could be heard telling the TV match director, with his microphone on, “Come on, don’t show it because…” Either the microphone had been cut off, or Terheege had realized he was being heard on the air.

In a statement, the RFU confirmed that Terheege had asked the TNT sporting director for clips of the incident to review in the background before deciding whether to launch a formal investigation into the foul incident, while simultaneously checking the justification for the incident. The Saracens tried.

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But the PGMOT review claimed Terheege did not request a re-examination of the incident because he was “confident in his initial decision”.

In the statement, it was said: “Regarding the foul play made by Stephan Lewies against Owen Farrell, TMO saw the first contact without the ball.” “He ruled on the evidence that this was nothing more than a penalty advantage. When Saracens scored, it was accepted that this advantage had been taken and therefore no further action was required.

“In response to Stuart’s initial request for footage, the director asked the TMO if it wanted to look at it again. TMO rejected the offer because it was confident in its initial decision. At the same time, the TNT Sports commentary team also watched the replays and asked whether Lewies’ actions warranted review.

“TNT Sports’ audio directors can move to TMO if there is a moment when viewers could benefit from their insight in their decision-making process. At this point, some discussions between TMO and the match director regarding the requested replays and whether an official review was necessary were broadcast ‘live’.

“The ‘live’ conversation between the TMO and the director was regrettable, it was not planned to be heard outside the broadcast truck and was not the reason why the foul incident was not officially investigated.

“Terheege is disappointed that he allowed himself to be distracted by his interactions with the broadcast team and failed to communicate his decision to the match officials on the field.”

The RFU insisted that TMOs did not actively listen to or react to the broadcast commentary team and that they “made their decisions independently, based on their own judgement, experience and in line with agreed World Rugby protocols”.

“However, due to their position during the matches, they sometimes overhear comments,” the statement said. “The nature of some broadcast equipment and the sound configuration in some stadiums means that the operating environment varies from match to match.

“The incident was unusual and unfortunate. PGMOT, Premiership Rugby and TNT Sports are working closely together to ensure this does not happen again. The three organizations have a close and positive working relationship based on a mutually beneficial system that has operated for many years. All “The parties will continue to work hard to further improve and perfect the systems to ensure player safety and high quality rugby.”

Telegraph Sport understands that Ridley was unaware of the conversations during the match and that the conversation between Terheege and the director was broadcast only to television viewers. The on-field umpire only noticed the controversy surrounding the exchange after the game and heard nothing on the field.