Rugby referees need to be bolder and national coaches entitled to behave like they run a club

Last Saturday was extraordinary. I wonder what odds you would have got on England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland all winning away against Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina. You would certainly have cleaned up very nicely on a four match accumulator. It was unprecedented. How many Tests after all have the Lions won in recent series?

The host nations all have some reason to think that the gods had deserted them. Every match was close – in Scotland’s case closer than the score suggests. Against Ireland the All Blacks played more than half the match with only 14 men, and were indeed reduced to 13, even only 12, for short periods. Australia scored two tries to England’s one but under pressure conceded too many penalties which Owen Farrell kicked. Wales only nudged ahead in the last minute and even then it required a touchline conversion from Gareth Anscombe to secure victory. For Wales John Taylor’s famous 1971 kick at Murrayfield can no longer surely be regarded as the greatest conversion since St Paul.

Finally, if Scotland scored four tries to Argentina’s one, their opponents were as near as dammit to scoring three others themselves. Twice they were thwarted by marvellous last-second defence, and once they were denied a score when the TMO spotted a forward pass at an early phase of the attack. Any Argentinian fan was entitled to feel aggrieved, that forward pass being almost irrelevant. On the other hand TV coverage suggested it was so obvious that it was astonishing the referee didn’t spot it, blow his whistle and give Scotland a scrum. Perhaps referees now opt out of such snap decisions, knowing that TV replays will be available. There would be little cause for complaint if they were bolder.

I don’t often