NewsBiscuit

The future of video refereeing was thrown into doubt last night after the fourth official admitted he had got bored and switched channels during the game.

The respected referee’s assistant Graham Smith was at Twickenham watching the live video feed of England playing South Africa. ‘It was all right for a bit, but England were so rubbish I got bored…’ said Smith, ‘So I just happened to flick over to UK Living and became engrossed in an old repeat of What Not To Wear.’

Mr Smith’s slip was exposed when the referee asked him to adjudicate on whether or not a South African player had stepped into touch before scoring a try. With modern referees wearing microphones Smith’s response was heard live by the crowd and millions of BBC viewers. ‘I got a bit confused,’ explained Smith. ‘The referee pointed to the South African prop forward and asked me for my verdict. I told him that dark top did nothing for his colouring – and that tits like that need better support if you’re going to wear tight polyester…’

The referee ended up awarding a penalty against South Africa for wearing green socks with yellow stripes. RFU officials had hoped that no one would notice; ‘Nobody really knows the rules of rugby, not even the players or referees,’ said Smith. ‘So you can normally make something up. My favourite is ‘coming in from the side’ as it sounds a bit rude.’

Sports bosses have conceded that the problem of video refs flicking around between channels is a problem that may delay the introduction of video technology in football. One solution under consideration was to hide the remote control under the sofa cushion.

Following this weekend’s admission of the channel hopping video ref, the RFU have now received a request from England to have this weekend’s international replayed. ‘Or we might just get the South African rugby team to play eighty minutes against Trinny and Susannah,’ said the RFU. ‘The score wouldn’t be much different.’

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Posted: Nov 27th, 2006 by NewsBiscuit