Sluggish TMOs blight opening weekend of Women's Six Nations

Telegraph

24-03-2025

During England's sub-par second-half showing against Italy Katy Daley-Mclean, the former Red Roses fly-half, could no longer hide her dismay at the glacially slow television match official interventions encroaching on the match.
Italy's Beatrice Rigoni had attempted her conversion (and missed) for Francesca Sgorbini's try and England were ready to take the restart when the TMO came in. Sgorbini had grounded the ball a whole three minutes earlier, sparking wild Italian celebrations, but it was then chalked off for obstruction.
'It's taking a lot of the tempo out of the game and it's quite energy-sapping for the players,' sighed Daley-Mclean. 'If it's that clear and obvious, it shouldn't take that amount of time.'
Daley-Mclean's frustration was shared by thousands of fans inside the stadium as well as many more watching at home. The TMO delays during the opening round of the Women's Six Nations were more cumbersome than those found on Britain's train network. If this year's championship is supposed to be a shop window for the World Cup, the excruciatingly slow TMO interventions risk becoming a major turn-off for new audiences.
A penny for the thoughts of referee Precious Pazani, who spent much of the match running up and down the length of the field each time she was summoned to the one big screen at the far corner of York's LNER Community Stadium. She did it twice in the first half when assessing potential scores from Rosie Galligan and Maddie Feaunati, both of which required TMO intervention.
With bleep-test vigour, she then scuttled back in the other direction to communicate the decision to the other team because, inexcusably, her microphone was not linked up to the stadium's PA system. So much for rugby's innovations and fans being brought closer to the action. In this instance, they were a million miles away.
Referee Precious Pazani isn't mic'd up in York. Strange silence every time she goes to TMO and crowd falls flat. Disappointing to see the tech hasn't been rolled out across all @Womens6Nations stadiums given the innovation has been such a popular hit in the men's game.
— Fi Tomas (@fi_tomas_) March 23, 2025
All things considered, the Zimbabwean official (and how refreshing was it to see a person of colour taking charge of a Test match?) handled proceedings in a glowingly professional manner given the circumstances, even if the stoppages caused by the lengthy TMO deliberations were more pronounced.
Yes, there were a couple of long TMO deliberations in the men's championship – Hugo Keenan's try during Ireland's win over Italy was ruled out after Jack Crowley had converted while there was a lengthy discussion before Blair Murray's try was disallowed in the Wales-England match – but already in the women's event we seem to have seen more pedestrian interventions.
They were just as clunky in Scotland's scrappy win over Wales, which heavily disrupted the free-flowing nature of the match. Again, there was another unwanted scenario when Wales were ready to restart, only for Lana Skeldon's mauling score to eventually be wiped.
There was further bewilderment when, in scenes reminiscent of Murray's tackle jump that led to Taulupe Faletau's try being ruled out in the men's championship, Lisa Thomson was not penalised for jumping over Keira Bevan's tackle attempt. 'That's a clear jump for me, sorry TMO,' lamented Siwan Lillicrap, the former Wales captain, on the BBC's coverage.
One sports journalist went as far to suggest on social media that the optics of a male TMO excessively imposing himself on the action crept into 'mansplaining' territory.
There are two main takeaways. The first is that the Women's Six Nations deserves proper stadium infrastructure if it is going to be taken seriously like the men's championship, so as not to lessen its entertainment value.
Secondly, these incidents should serve as a huge wake-up call for World Cup organisers, who have already selected venues such as York to stage pool matches later this year. A big screen at either end of the ground – or even a smaller viewing platform near the halfway line like the ones referees use for VAR incidents in football – should be non-negotiables for the tournament. If these are the teething problems surfacing now, you would hope organisers are taking notes.
It is doubly unfortunate when you consider the women's game has a higher ball-in-play time compared to men's rugby and TMO interruptions suck the tempo out of contests even more. This was not lost on England head coach John Mitchell, who hinted the lengthy stoppages played a part in his side's lacklustre second-half showing. 'The Red Roses are a team that never stands still,' he added, insisting they would react better to them.
His team can do all the adapting in the world, but it will be pretty meaningless if the TMOs do not up their game and prevent such momentum killers.