How Rugby came out stronger using the VAR

With so many concerns surrounding how VAR will work in practice for various Sports including football, how far its jurisdiction will spread and what effect this might have, former Rugby referee Ed Morrison who has experienced this all before explains why the beautiful game has nothing to worry about.

Rugby was one of the first major sports to adopt video technology back in 2000, the same year the Six Nations began, with basic television replays helping to clear up whether or not a try had been scored or a foot had gone into touch. Ed Morrison who was key in introducing the TMO to his own sport says to Betway Insider:

“All of us are slow to accept change in all walks of life. In rugby, some people accepted professionalism and what it meant, whereas I struggled with it. I realise now that I was probably quite foolish. Now we have a professional game that everybody buys into and that is great. And that’s exactly what will happen with the video replay system.”

Commenting on the controversy of VAR and the impact of technology on Rugby and other Sports, Morison who received an OBE award in New Year’s Honours list in 2015 claims that:

“There isn’t a 100 per cent, fool proof system. It just doesn’t exist, because human beings are human beings. People make judgments, and sometimes you disagree with those judgments. However, it’s imperative that soccer, rugby and other professional sports use the technology that’s available. It would be crazy not to. More big decisions are made correctly now than ever in the history of the game. There are the odd occasions, but they are very odd.”

The infographic below presents 6 cases that Video Technology decided the Six Nations by Ed Morrison: