WHATEVER happens in the next round of Six Nations matches, Hugo Southwell hopes performances and results are not overshadowed as they have been in the last week by post-match post-mortems similar to those surrounding the outcome of the England-Wales clash.

The fall-out from Gareth Anscombe’s “try’”for the Welsh has raged all week, not helped by the antics of World Rugby. But Southwell’s sympathies on this occasion don’t lie with the match officials or the malcontents in the valleys.

“I have to agree to some extent with Eddie Jones,” says Southwell. “The game is finished now. For someone within the Welsh camp to ring up World Rugby and demand an explan-ation, and for [Wales assistant coach] Rob Howley to then take it upon himself to come out and tell everyone about the conversation that has been had, to rile the situation, and World Rugby back up, is quite inflammatory.

“I can understand the conversation being had. But for World Rugby to admit it – which they also did with the Craig Joubert decision against Scotland during the World Cup – and then back up Rob Howley, is a slight on the England players and coach, who for no fault of their own, are being held up as some kind of villains when the reality was it had nothing to do with them.

“I just think this has set the bar where others, if they are not happy, will phone World Rugby, challenge them, then tell everyone the outcome of those discussions. All I see from that is creating more unhappiness around a

decision that can’t be changed.

“Are we going to get people saying they didn’t really lose a game because World Rugby has held their hands up and said we got it wrong. That is a dangerous road to go down.”

And Southwell, like many, is still toiling with the process that ended in no try, but an apology, being issued to Wales.

“That was a big call. Whether it decided the game or not, is just down to conjecture and speculation,” says Southwell. “It looked like a try for me. Even seeing it at normal speed, you have an instinct just by playing sport about what has gone on. And that looked like a score. But after that, it was a shambles.

“You have a very experienced referee in Jerome Garces who has the incident up on the big screen. He decided to take everything that the video referee told him as fact and didn’t look at the screen or think about challenging it. Compare that to say Nigel Owens. He looks at the screen and tells the video referee, ‘what are your thoughts on this, because I am seeing…’ and explains his judgment process to the guy controlling the video.

“You are never left in any doubt that Nigel Owens is in charge and all he is seeking from the TMO is clarification about the call he wants to make. Jerome Garces however asked the TMO, Glenn Newman, what he’d seen – then went with that. For me, that shows a weakness from the referee.”