This penultimate post is slightly different to the previous works of art, as it concerns how other sports such as rugby use VAR like technology in their game. How does it work? Is it successful? Well that's what this blog post will look to answer, while seeing if there is any lessons for football's VAR.
Rugby has featured video assistant technology for quite some time. In fact, Rugby union first implemented the use of the television match official (TMO) back in 2001. The main intervention points for a TMO are for an act of scoring or foul play. These incidents will affect the scoreboard, requirement for a ruling on disciplinary actions or, sometimes both. Obviously, just like football, these are important to get right as they can massively affect the outcome of the match.
One of the main plus points of how the technology is operated in rugby is the fact that when a match is televised, supporters can listen to the referee's thought process aloud, during TV commentary broadcast live from the stadium. Clear comments and the agreement on judgement, helps to decipher the decision-making process. This, along with replays displayed on the screens of the the incident at hand allows for a much more informed experience for all in the stadium. At the time being, because of this, it is a lot clearer to rugby viewers why a decision is being checked, which players are involved and how an outcome has been reached compared to football.
Heres a clip below, of highly respected referee Nigel Owens, being very clear and assertive in his decision-making, that perfectly illustrates how well Rugby uses the technology.
This is something I strongly believe can help improve VAR and should be implemented as soon as possible. This can help mitigate the current uncertainty and confusion that still remains with VAR and allow it to be a real benefit to the beautiful game.
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