World Rugby breaks silence on World Cup final error report
World Rugby has issued a statement in which they fail to deny or confirm whether they’d privately acknowledged that the All Blacks were robbed in the World Cup final against the Springboks.
A report circulated in New Zealand media on Monday that the All Blacks were privately informed by World Rugby that their disallowed try in the World Cup final should have stood.
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The chalked-off try in question was scored by All Blacks scrumhalf Aaron Smith, who found himself on the end of the final pass after teammate Richie Mo’unga breached the Springboks defence in the 54th minute. But the five-pointer was scraped off the record because there had been a knock on by Ardie Savea in the build-up.
Television match official Tom Foley identified the knock-on four phases before Smith’s attempt, which is understood to have exceeded the two-phase limit for TMO reviews per World Rugby’s mid-2022 protocol update.
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According to New Zealand’s Stuff, the controversial ruling has been acknowledged privately by World Rugby as a breach of the rules, yet remains unacknowledged publicly.
The report was widely ridiculed on social media, with many commentators mocking World Rugby for going from always publicly showing solidarity with and condemning anyone who dares to criticise its match-officials to now cowardly doing the same in private after the All Blacks demanded answers in the wake of their final defeat.
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WORLD RUGBY STATEMENT ON PRIVATE MESSAGE TO ALL BLACKS
On Tuesday day, World Rugby has issued a short statement in response to the damning media report, saying the governing body stands by their match officials.
However, throughout the statement the governing body neither denies or confirms the allegation that they had told the All Blacks privately that the TMO made an error to disallow Smith’s try.
“As confirmed prior to Rugby World Cup 2023, World Rugby does not publicly comment on match official decisions.
“We stand by our outstanding match official team, who performing one of the hardest jobs in professional sport to an exceptional standard.
“As we have seen in recent months, sadly, criticism of match officials can have wide-ranging consequences, including online hate and threats, and we must be mindful of such a human impact.”
AARON SMITH SCORES THE DISALLOWED TRY
