Eddie Jones Gets It Wrong: Rugby TMOs Are Not Failed Referees

What does Eddie Jones know about refereeing? As you’d expect from a scrum-half turned coach, the Australian has spent the majority of his rugby career criticising those who officiate the game. It’s time he either educates himself on the intricacies of refereeing, or leaves the talking to those in the know.

Having expressed his indignation towards what he called ‘the overuse of the TMO’ in the July test series, Eddie Jones took another shot at TMOs at a press conference in London ahead of the Autumn Nations series, labelling them ‘failed referees’.

“They’ve got a failed referee in the grandstand – that’s the TMO. They are not usually old, they are usually blokes that have not been able to cut the mustard, and they are telling the one on the field who cuts the mustard what to do”, Jones said.

Whether or not this is a classic Eddie Jones move, taking pressure away from his team and pointing all the barrels towards himself, the comments themselves do more harm and allow fans, young players and other coaches in the game to assume that rugby referee critic has stopped being sacred.

Jones is not alone on this train. Last year, during a Lions series riddled with animosity and cheap shots, Warren Gatland called into question the integrity of TMO, Marius Jonker. The South African had been appointed to handle the clash between the British and Irish Lions against the Springboks in Cape Town.

We know how Warren Gatland’s comments made the astute referee, Marius Jonker, doubt his impartiality in the TMO seat making the game drag on for over 100 minutes as Jonker second guessed his decisions to prove his impartiality – which was never in question until Gatland’s comments.

Brendon Pickerill, Ben Whitehouse, Marius Jonker, and Joy Neville are all TMOs who are on duty for the Autumn Nations series this year. To suggest that Joy Neville, who won referee of the year in 2017 ahead of Wayne Barnes and Nigel Owens, is a failed referee is something Jones should be challenged on – especially by those in positions of power in the game.

There is precedence though. Rassie Erasmus ignited this kind of behavior after the first test in the Cape during the same Lions series. He recorded an hour-long monologue expressing his disdain towards referee Nick Berry of Australia. He later received a ban for attacking referees. Whether or not you feel that Jones’ comments and Erasmus hour long video critiquing the performance of Berry are the same, is irrelevant. There is enough overlap to warrant a more than slap of the wrist. An example should be made of Jones.

International referees meet a minimum of four times a year with World Rugby, these meetings serve as rigorous training, workshops and team building camps. Most rugby referees are volunteers who get rewarded for their services on a match fee basis and have daily jobs.

Unlike Jones, they do not have assistants, a bloated technical team or a mammoth RFU budget to help them become the best in the world, a feat Jones has not archived with all these resources at his disposal.

A minimum of 70% is the pass mark for anyone who wants to be a referee at a decent level. Bump that mark up by ten percent if you are an aspiring TMOs.

England under Jones produced a clinical performance to dispatch the All Blacks in that semifinal at RWC 2019 in Japan, but his decision to take only two scrum halves to the World Cup can be argued to have contributed to England’s demise in the final seven days later.

Does that make Jones a failed coach “who has not got the mustard,” as he said, to win the World Cup, seeing that it was his second loss in a World Cup final?

TMOs have made some strange decisions in the last 18 months, we have been baffled by some decisions or in some cases non, decisions, calling them failed referees does not add to the spirit of the game, something Jones seems to not hold in any regard.

Referees are underappreciated in rugby union; they volunteer their services even at the highest level. According to Roger Northwood, of the London Society of Rugby Football Union Referees, “people do not come back to referee after one unpleasant incident because no one is willing to volunteer to be abused”

The game needs changes, which Jones has highlighted on many occasions.

Their struggle (TMOs) during Test matches is more hinged on the lack of simplicity within the law book rather than their ability to conduct their duties effectively.

I hope Jones focuses more on ensuring he has enough scrum halves of quality to help his team challenge for the Webb Ellis trophy come France 2023.