Lions referees need time to gel like players, but they have not been given it

Telegraph

15-07-2025

Dallaglio, Back and Hill. Nonu and Smith. Gregan and Larkham. These are some of the most memorable combinations of the professional era. Together, they helped to turn great teams into world-beaters.
And it is no coincidence that the teams who have dominated the world stage have been built around consistent partnerships. It makes total sense. Players need to be clear on their game plan, they need to be able to predict what their team-mates may do in certain situations and they need to understand each other's strengths and weaknesses.
Such combinations, however, take time to grow. They require an assortment of shared experiences and they need to have felt and learnt through adversity.
Referees are no different. They need to have an agreed philosophy on how a match should be officiated. They need to agree when a TMO should, and perhaps more importantly, when a TMO should not, get involved.
It requires the team of officials to know each other inside out, so when they are under the microscope of the rugby world and performing in front of thousands, they don't have to second-guess each other when under pressure – they just know.
And there is no more pressure for a rugby referee than during a Lions series as the past two have shown.
During the 2021 series against South Africa, Springboks coach Rassie Erasmus posted a 62-minute rant online about what he perceived to be refereeing inconsistencies.
That rant not only led to him being banned for two months from all rugby activities, but it also led to Nic Berry, the referee, stating 'that regardless of the outcome and any sanctions imposed, my reputation as a referee and person will forever be tarnished.'
Late in the third Lions Test in Auckland in 2017, Romain Poite awarded a penalty to the All Blacks when replacement hooker Ken Owens caught the ball in an offside position from the restart.
The French official then reviewed it with his Australian TMO, George Ayoub, and changed his decision to a scrum.
At the time, Steve Hansen refused to condemn the decision in public, but has said since then that the 'thing that annoyed me most about that incident, and still does to this day, is that we haven't had an apology from World Rugby.'
I was, and still am, a huge advocate of match officials working regularly together, to ensure nothing is left to chance. It is why when I walked onto the field for the World Cup final with two English referees on the sideline and an English TMO in the stand, I knew we had prepared for every eventuality.
We had been there and done that. From European Cup finals to Test series in New Zealand, we had worked together in some of the most pressurised matches the game has to offer.
One of the wildest atmospheres I ever refereed in was in the Velodrome in Marseille in 2022 when France played the world champions, South Africa. This was number one versus two in the world, and had been talked up as a dress rehearsal for the World Cup final less than a year later.
When it was announced I would be refereeing the match, I was obviously delighted, but couldn't believe that I had been paired with an Irish TMO that I had never worked with before. And to cap it off, Tom Foley, the English TMO, who I had worked with for years and who I had built a wonderful rapport with, was in Scotland working as a TMO for an Irish referee.
It didn't make sense, and it definitely didn't set us up with the best chance of success.
Following this year's European Champions Cup final, one journalist suggested the TMO almost completely took over the match and 'was on top of every slight spill'.
And that, in a nutshell, is why match officials need to know each other inside out, so they can all be comfortable with not having a perfect game. Their perfect game will mean more whistle, more scrums and less rugby.
A TMO needs to be clear that their role is not to analyse every possible knock-on, or every potential forward pass, but just to get the big calls right.
Unless match officials work together regularly, how do they know what is a big decision for one and what is a TMO taking over the match for another?
And there lies my concern. Before the first Test, Andy Farrell will be making decisions around the best combinations.
But the four match officials have not all been in Australia honing their team. Ben O'Keeffe and Richard Kelly were officiating Fiji v Scotland in Suva last weekend while Andrea Piardi and Nika Amashukeli – who will referee Tests two and three respectively – refereed the match between the Lions and the Invitational Australia and New Zealand side.
O'Keeffe, Piardi and Amashukeli are excellent referees, but they all have a slightly different style and a slightly different way in which they interact with the TMO. They will work hard in the week leading up to the first Test in Brisbane, but they won't be purring like the Nonu-Smith partnership.
It's also interesting that, unlike in 2017 and 2021, rather than using a single TMO, World Rugby has decided to appoint three different individuals. Kelly, will be followed by the Frenchman, Eric Gauzins and then Marius Jonker from South Africa will take over in the box for the third and final Test, meaning that the consistency fans want, and expect, may not be there.
I was at my best when I had people around me who knew me inside out, knew our game plan and knew when or when not to get involved in the game. That took years of discussions, hundreds of hours in reviewing meetings.
The officials will already be working hard to ensure they are aligned and connected come kick-off for the first Test on July 19. But I fear they may not have enough time together to cover all of the possible scenarios that a Lions series could throw up and perform to their best.