World Rugby has backed the decision to disallow Sam Underhill's late try in England's one-point loss against the All Blacks in Sunday's (NZ time) test at Twickenham.
England thought they had snatched victory, when Underhill scored after a charge-down with four minutes to go, but TMO Marius Jonker ruled Courtney Lawes offside at the breakdown.
- Opinion: All Blacks vs England player ratings
- Grant Chapman: Five things we learned from the All Blacks win over England
British media claimed Lawes was "clearly onside", but The Guardian reports that the sport's ruling body believes Jerome Garces followed the correct procedures and the decision to overturn the on-field decision was the correct one.
"Debate has also raged as to whether Lawes was offside, but World Rugby believes he was at the moment Perenara lifted the ball," The Guardian reports.
"Precisely this sort of incident was a key focus of last week's meeting between referees and coaches with a re-emphasis on the definition of when the ball is out - namely a lifting action, rather than placing hands on it.
"Under World Rugby directives, a TMO trial was introduced for the most recent round of matches to give back responsibility to the on-field referee and it states that 'try-scoring should be an on-field decision, with the referee being responsible, but the team of four [officials] can all contribute'.
"Although Garces was within a few metres of Lawes at the time of the incident, he appeared to go against the directive by consulting with Jonker.
"Allowing Jonker to make the final decision would also seem to contravene the directive that requires 'compelling evidence' for the TMO to intervene with World Rugby, considering Lawes to have been marginally offside.
"Ultimately, however, the governing body believes a number of mitigating factors meant Garces was within his rights to defer the final decision to the TMO, chiefly the poor weather, which made visibility of Twickenham's big screens more difficult."
All Blacks coach Steve Hansen praised the match officials for making the correct call after the match.
"There was no doubt he was offside," said Hansen. "He was just about in the halfback's back pocket.
"What was going through my mind was 'are they going to be brave enough to make the right decision' and they were, so it was good."
England coach Eddie Jones refused to blame the referees.
"Sometimes the game loves you and sometimes the game doesn't love you," he said.
"You have got to accept that if you stay in the fight long enough, the game will love you. We're prepared to stay in the fight, so we will get some love from the game further down the track, don't worry.
"I don't comment on those decisions - I leave that up to that guy and if he can't make the right decision with 10 replays, then who can."
The All Blacks will face Ireland in their next match.
Newshub.
Join us at 7:30am Sunday for live updates of the All Blacks vs Ireland at Dublin.
