Bridie Bhoy
Well-known member
I know a lot of us harp on about how the TMO is used in rugby union compared to VAR is football, but it isn't just that the crowd are able to watch the replays and viewers at home (and fans who've paid the few £s for a ref radio) listen in to the referees discussion. It is also the fact that in rugby, as soon as an incident is highlighted, the 2 touch officials and the referee get together and they logically and calmly talk through the various aspects about what they are seeing and come to agreement on how the laws of the game should be used to adjudicate that part of the incident. It is not uncommon for them to agree that the ref's original interpretation was indeed correct. There is no 2 or 3 minute wait hanging about for VAR to review and only then get just the ref to look at it on their own - they are all involved straight away.There are times when you just have to accept that the far far better side won and last night was one of those times.
We started really brightly and we were right in the game, better team even..... for the first 5 minutes , and reality hits home.
We can compete at champions league level but once were up against the big clubs, like Atleti, one of the if not the dirtiest cheating bassas I've ever witnessed. Then we see how good a result at CP really was.
Usually , in the past when we've been soundly beaten I'm first to hold my hands up and say " well done that team" but Atleti? No I cannot bring myself to wish them anything. Barcelona, PSG arsenal , those were games that we were beaten out of sight deservedly so and no cheating was necessary, it just must be built into their DNA and we don't have a dark arts player while everyone of them is expert.
Once down to 10 men then we were steamrolled but before that I was happy with what I was seeing , apart from the referee and var contriving to fuck us over, again.
Something must change I don't say this as only a disengruntled Celt but with the Euros approaching this system isn't good enough.
var isn't designed or if it is then it doesn't take into account still frames Vs live action and there's a huge difference between the two.
By the letter of the law , studs up and the correct decision but the still picture made it look horrendous but the slow mo showed that maeda, recieved a full bllown clearance in between the thighs not nice and whilst you can slow/stop the camera down like that I feel it wasn't taken into account that both players went 100% each into that tackle. Something that should be considered when making these decisions. That could just as easily have been Maeda on the reciving end of the clash,ote rightly so, but when called to the monitor the ref instantly thinks " I've missed something" rather than " I'll look again " but thinking i made the right call, for if var is now the de facto referee we don't need one on the field. Not enough refs are strong-willed enough to stick with the og decision.
It's an assistant not the last word supposed to be.
No let's blame var on this, not the result but the red card. It was never a red card, was a 50/50 challenge and it ruined the game as a spectacle.
Var isn't fit for purpose when it comes to this type of decision.
Sure studs were up a bit but to the side in anticipation of blocking off the pass, Maeda recieved a really sore one himself in between the legs.
No one is blaming var for the result but they got that wrong. Var isn't for still images if it was every challenge on the park would be scrutinised.
Didn't help with the simeone ( wee prick) jumping up and down like his player had just been shot).
We are up against it as it is to not call var out on getting it wrong would be wrong.
Did it influence the result?
Yes it did, would we have gotten anything from the game? Unlikely.
They were on form we weren't but let's not hide behind " not vars fault" definately vars fault. The referee gave it as yellow which it was but nothing more than that
They can freely put in their tuppence worth and come to a logical conclusion without any inference of someone making a mistake. This is the opposite of football where a couple of refs sit remotely and effectively tell the ref he needs to look at an incident again because he has made a mistake or missed something. 99% of the time the ref naturally caves in to the pressure they feel and go along with the VAR decision. There appears to be no discussion taking place whatsoever other than requesting to see something again or from another angle.
TMO in rugby is definitely not perfect and fans will still disagree with the outcome of some decisions, but you are at least 100% aware as to how they reached that conclusion and all of the refereeing team have been able to bounce points off of each other during the review.
The ref last night was awful, Simeone always has been a dirty cheating prick and we probably still would have lost even with 11 players on the pitch as they have some excellent footballers (if only they'd cut out the nonsense).