The influence of televison producers on rugby is a matter for the New Zealand Rugby Union to take up, All Blacks coach Steve Hansen says.
The All Blacks beat England 24-21 at Twickenham on Saturday in a game that featured several incidents referred to the television match official, including at least one that was referred only after the home crowd's outraged reaction to a big-screen replay alerted referee Nigel Owens to the incident.
Referee Nigel Owens (left) during the international between England and New Zealand at Twickenham. Photo: AFP
Steve Hansen speaks to media. Photo: RNZ / Kim Baker Wilson
Hansen said he complained after a similar incident in South Africa last month, which resulted in officials unexpectedly reviewing a different decision and issuing a penalty. He would not be laying a new complaint, but expected that NZRU chief executive Steve Tew would look at it.
"It's really up to (Steve Tew) and his guys - the end user doesn't really get too much of a say. It's about the administrators now can see clearly that it's a problem and they should talk about it, and they will."
Replacement flyhalf Beauden Barrett was lining up a conversion 10 minutes from time when the crowd erupted at a replay that seemed to show the ball to have been touched down short of the line, Reuters reports.
Owens, who had awarded the try without involving the television match official (TMO), then decided to "go upstairs". The replay showed that the line in question was part of some advertising markings and that the ball had been safely grounded.
"My biggest concern is that the TV producers are starting to have an influence on the game, and it's not on the away side I might add," Hansen told a media conference in the UK after the match.
"Something goes wrong, we see a replay 10 times. The referee hasn't seen it, the touch judge hasn't seen it and the TMO hasn't seen it.
"We don't need a TV producer to replay something 100 times. That's not in the character or the spirit of our game.
"Referees will make mistakes and some of them will cost you the game, but you've got to live with that because some day you'll get the rub of the green. But TV producers, they are starting to annoy me somewhat."
