This column uses the Siba Mahashe disallowed try in the Lions-Leinster URC clash as the centrepiece of a broader argument about TMO scope creep. The core contention: the "clear and obvious" standard that justified introducing TMOs has quietly been abandoned, replaced by a forensic, CSI-style review process that slows the game, undermines on-field referees, and produces maddening inconsistency. If Davidson was standing two metres from the breakdown when the alleged infraction occurred and saw nothing, the author argues, it plainly wasn't clear and obvious — yet the TMO intervened anyway, after the conversion attempt. Meanwhile, a Leinster try in the same game that the scorer himself seemed uncertain about wasn't reviewed at all. The piece draws uncomfortable parallels with VAR overreach in football, where the spontaneity of the moment has been systematically eroded by technology applied without consistent principle.
Beyond the officiating argument, the column touches on two other threads worth following: the All Blacks' self-defeating refusal to grant Retallick and Mo'unga exceptions to their overseas-player policy (with direct implications for their series against the Boks), and a final-round URC playoff preview with the author's predicted top-eight finish and quarterfinal matchups — including a Lions trip back to Dublin.