United Rugby Championship refs warned they could be pulled as boss makes TV admission

The United Rugby Championship’s head of match officials has admitted on TV a crucial try which was controversially disallowed on the weekend should have stood.

And he's confirmed officials who show a continued track record of poor decision-making will be taken out of the firing line.

It looked as though Ulster were going to record a notable victory away to the Stormers when replacement prop Callum Reid forced his way over the line just two minutes from time in Cape Town, with Italian referee Gianluca Gnecchi initially awarding the try. But, as the conversion was being lined up, South African TMO Quinton Immelman then intervened, calling on Gnecchi to take another look at it, and after lengthy debate and numerous replays the score was ruled out for a knock-on by Reid.

Following pleas from Ulster captain Alan O’Connor, the pair looked at it once more to see if Stormers back row Hacjivah Dayimani had knocked the ball on deliberately rather than Reid dropping it, but they decided Dayimani had hit the prop’s hand, not the ball. So the try was chalked off and the Stormers held on to win 23-20, taking them up to sixth in the URC table. You can read more about how the league standings are looking here.

Ulster head coach Dan McFarland was furious after the game and now it’s been confirmed he had every right to be upset. That’s because Tappe Henning, the South African former international referee who is in charge of all officials in the cross-continent competition, has admitted the key decision was wrongly made. In an appearance on SuperSport’s Final Whistle, he said a crucial piece of information was not discussed between the referee and TMO - namely that Gnecchi’s original decision was to award the score.

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