Changes need to be made immediately if we ever want to see a tour where the players live in less fear of officiating confusion
It is Saturday evening in Cape Town Stadium and up goes the final restart. There is no audible roar around the empty arena, just an inner screech of locked-in tension. The scores are tied and, entering the last minute of a hugely controversial series, the outcome remains unclear. As the ball descends and the Springbok forwards surge towards the waiting Lions receiver, 12 years of intense anticipation have come down to this.
At which point let’s press the pause button. Imagine the would-be catcher is the Lions and Wales hooker Ken Owens. Put yourself in his position. In 2017 it was the “accidental” offside call against “The Sheriff” at a similar juncture of the tied All Blacks series that shaped the whole outcome. By the letter of the law the referee Romain Poite should have awarded a penalty, only for the Lions captain Sam Warburton to ask for the decision to be referred upstairs. A scrum was the result. Was justice served? The answer, even now, mostly depends on the part of the world from which you hail.