World Rugby are considering whether an overhaul to the way the television match official is used is necessary.
The governing body has taken the measure of examining the current system to see whether the role of a TMO negatively impacts matches and diminishes the integrity of the referee.
The move follows SANZAAR announcing it will review how the TMO is used after ‘some challenges’ during the June internationals and the Super Rugby season.
World Rugby chief executive Brett Gosper maintained the decision had been made without the influence of controversies that arose in the June internationals and the issue was more about concerns over the TMO being more powerful than the referee.
“There is probably too much reliance at the moment on the TMO,” Gosper admitted.
“The feeling in the room is that we would like referees, themselves, to take a bit more control. That’s something that we are going to work through.
“We think we have the ability to move quickly, maybe have a different protocol ready to test in November, potentially.
“It wasn’t these particular June tests – although there were some particularly strong views coming out of the southern hemisphere in particular,” he said.
One instance that sent twitter into meltdown saw referee John Lacey accidentally block France scrum-half Baptiste Serin from tackling Damian McKenzie following a scrum; McKenzie was then able to run clear through the France defence to score a try in the third Test.
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