The Reds clearly arrived in Dunedin with a Hilton plan to target tall Highlanders tight-head prop Saula Ma’u, and it almost single-handedly won them the game. Brumbies undone by rugby’s TMO process The process that led to the Brumbies having a try scrubbed out against the Waratahs after they went through 1000 phases had its genesis in the 2023 Rugby World Cup final. In that game, TMO Tom Foley and referee Wayne Barnes knowingly ignored the “two-phase” guideline to disallow an All Blacks try against the Springboks because of a knock-on that happened four phases before Aaron Smith scored. Faced with this awkward situation, World Rugby came up with a very World Rugby solution. Instead of publicly admitting Foley and Barnes ignored the protocol, they changed it to get rid of the “two-phase” part as a beefed-up package of TMO powers that was unveiled iln November. That led to Saturday night’s confusion, especially as the TMO did not make a “live” call to point out Noah Lolesio’s knock-on to referee Ben O’Keeffe, instead waiting until the passage of play was over. Was Lolesio’s knock-on “clear and obvious”? Not for mine. Should TMOs go back more than two phases for suspected knock-ons? Definitely not.