'Glasgow were robbed'... or were they? Exeter TMO call examined as mitigating factors ignored

Controversial no try decision in time added on cost Warriors a famous victory

Glasgow Warriors celebrate after scoring a last minute try against Exeter which was later disallowed following a TMO review. (Photo by Harry Trump/Getty Images)

While football is still wrangling over the pros and cons of VAR, the TMO (Television Match Official) has been a mostly welcome part of the rugby landscape for more than two decades now.

Being able to listen in as the referee discusses a possible infringement with their colleagues in the video room also helps provide transparency, with the thought process laid out clearly, step by step.

There are times, however, when it feels like the technology has to somehow justify its existence, poring agonisingly over every aspect of an incident like a forensic scientist picking their way meticulously through a crime scene.

Glasgow Warriors look dejected following their defeat to Exeter in the Investec Champions Cup. (Photo by Harry Trump/Getty Images)

On Saturday it was Glasgow Warriors’ turn to feel like the victims. What a moment it ought to have been for Euan Ferrie, the 22 year-old forward who intercepted Ross Vintcent’s flailing kick for touch and powered over the line for what would have been the defining moment of an enthralling Champions Cup match with Exeter Chiefs and a first career try.

The Glasgow camp all went up in unison to celebrate but a nagging feeling quickly arose that this might be a case of premature jubilation. And so it proved. Once the TMO started sweeping the scene then it felt it would only be a matter of time before they alighted on something to justify ruling out the score.

Had scrum-half George Horne been too eager in trying to deter his opposite number? Did the Glasgow tacklers illegally impede Vintcent’s kick? Instead it was something more contentious and less obvious that emerged, the French officials deciding that Ferrie had left his scrum bind early in a bid to gain an advantage.

Technically it could be argued that it was the correct call but other mitigating factors seemed to be conveniently ignored. Had the scrum not effectively collapsed by that point? And had Vintcent not broken away early too? Glasgow protests, though, fell on deaf ears, just as they had when they made the not unreasonable point that Greg Fisilau’s head-on-head hit on Duncan Weir ought to have resulted in a red rather than yellow card.

The most telling reaction, in fact, came from the Exeter camp, with director of rugby Rob Baxter brazenly admitting that he knew the Ferrie try would be ruled out as soon as the video tape started whirring.

“It was always going to be disallowed if it went to the TMO because there were three or four offences,” he said. “The big decision wasn’t turning the try over, the big decision was going to the TMO.”

Matchwinner Henry Slade, however, offered a humbler assessment. “Those decisions at the end can go either way and we’re just happy we came out on the right side of it,” said the centre.

With the perennially zen head coach Franco Smith electing not to kick up a fuss, it was left to former player Ryan Wilson, now a ubiquitous TV presence, to push the Glasgow cause, wondering if 12,000 Exeter fans had also proved influential.

“I think Glasgow were robbed here,” he wrote on X. “So many little intricacies but the fact the ref goes looking for a reason not to award the try is the most frustrating. If that had been at Scotstoun would they have gone back and looked at it? I don’t think so.”