RedUnderTheBed wrote:
So if there is no conclusive video evidence how does the VR make a decision? Without the VR we have to accept that sometimes a try/no try decision will be made by the on field ref with help from touch judges when it may be none of them had a clear sight of the grounding or a potential infringement. That's just how it goes and the rules allow for that. So why should it be different if the on field ref asks gif VR advice as opposed to touch judge advice?
Someone with half a dozen different angles, super zoom and slow motion is in an infinitely better position to make the most accurate call, and that's what we should always be targeting. Look at Denny Solomona's disallowed try last night - if you can find me a single bit of footage that shows he didn't score then fair enough, but I certainly didn't see it and surely if you can't prove that he didn't score (and especially in cases where the difference is millimetres) then the benefit of doubt should - as it always has - go to the attacking team. Instead because the touch judge and Thaler, with the naked eye and in real time, determine that he didn't ground it the VR is left with no option other than to guess that they're right. You think that system is better?
In the past few Leeds games we've had a Hardaker try disallowed because the VR has guessed that it was a double movement and a try against us allowed because the VR has guessed that JJB jumped into an attacking player rather than being obstructed - in both cases if the call had gone up the opposite way I have absolutely no doubt that the opposite call would have been upheld. Supporting the referee come what may is not a solution. The on field ref sometimes has to guess, that's the nature of real time play and a clear indicator that they have is the request for a video referral. The video ref has the luxury of taking their time and can base their decisions on experience, multiple sources of evidence and the balance of probabilities - to place the referee's initial split second guess work above those factors is insane.
Send it upstairs, and if the VR wants the on field ref's opinion they can always ask for it, but the closest thing to the right decision is surely what we all want - we didn't get that last night.