4. Scotland v Australia a the 2015 World Cup
Scotland were heavy underdogs in this game and yet a Mark Bennett interception try with seven minutes to go, seemed to have given Scotland the victory and place in the semi finals.
With 2 minutes left to play, Scotland make a hash of their lineout, the ball bobbles around a few times and Joubert awards a penalty to Australia for Scotland playing the ball in an offside position.
At the time, the TMO couldn’t be used to review these sorts of incidents, so Craig Joubert was left to make a decision based on what he saw in that split second. Unfortunately for him, the penalty incident was replayed on the big screen as the kick was taken and the crowd could see the ball had hit an Australian player.
The game finished with Joubert beating a hasty retreat from the ground, after Foley had kicked the penalty to give Australia a 35-34 point victory.
World Rugby later released a statement saying that Joubert had got it wrong.
5. Third test of the British and Irish Lions 2017 tour
The ball comes forward from Liam Williams and Ken Owens momentarily catches the ball before dropping it. Referee Romain Poite immediately signals for a penalty for a deliberate offside, and in such a kickable position the series looks to be New Zealand’s.
After demonstrations from the Lions’ captain Sam Warburton, Poite decides to ask the TMO to check the incident.
After talking to the TMO Poite seems to be happy with his original decision that it was a deliberate offside and therefore a penalty, but by the time he has walked over to the two captains, his view has changed and he deems Owens’ intervention to be accidental and therefore just a scrum.
Make your own mind up. Did Read fairly challenge Williams in the air? Did the ball come forward off Williams? Was Owens’ contact accidental or deliberate?