A TMO can check only the incidents and time window the protocol permits.

The World Rugby 15-a-side baseline

This page applies the current World Rugby Laws of the Game, Law 6.15–6.16, including the law update effective for new competitions and events starting after 1 July 2026. It uses World Rugby's linked Television Match Official Protocol, applicable 1 January 2025, for the review process and timeframes.

There is a document-label wrinkle worth making explicit. The protocol PDF still says it was implemented as a Global Law Trial in January 2025, but World Rugby's July 2026 update moved “the role of the TMO” into full law, and the live 2026 Law 6 page continues to link to that protocol. For a league already in progress on 1 July 2026, World Rugby tells readers to confirm its implementation date with the relevant union.

This is a 15-a-side baseline, not a promise that every rugby match has video review. Law 6.15 says a match organiser may appoint a TMO. The separate World Rugby sevens process is explained below.

What a TMO may be asked to clarify

World Rugby Law 6.15 gives the permitted subject areas:

• Grounding the ball in in-goal.
• Touch or touch-in-goal in the act of grounding, or when the ball is made dead.
• Doubt over whether a kick at goal was successful.
• A possible infringement in the playing area leading to a try or preventing a try.
• Foul play, including the sanction.

Law 6.16 allows any match official, including the TMO, to recommend a TMO review. That does not create an unlimited power to search backwards for any error: the protocol supplies the referral type, permitted laws and time limit.

“Clear and obvious” has a defined meaning

The World Rugby protocol says it operates in the space commonly called clear and obvious, which it defines as an incident unlikely to be refereed in any other way. The purpose is to correct a reviewable error, not to let video drive every decision or to re-referee an entire possession.

That standard is not a demand for one perfect camera angle. Officials may consider the available views, but if the evidence does not establish the relevant legal fact to the protocol's standard, suspicion alone does not justify finding a missed infringement.

Formal referrals stop play; live referrals do not

Formal referral: a member of the team of four identifies an in-protocol incident that needs discussion. The referee starts the formal process, with play and time stopped, and remains the lead decision-maker while the officials work through the evidence.

Live referral: an official can make an accurate call without a formal discussion. The TMO may make that call after using replay or a delay screen, but only for the protocol's stated live-call subjects. These include a clear knock-on, a clear throw-forward, whether the ball was in touch and who should throw in, and dangerous play whose outcome is penalty only.

There are three different clocks

• Since the last restart: foul play may be reviewed at any stage since the last restart, provided the referral is made before play restarts again.
• The attacking passage: a clear knock-on, throw-forward, or the specified touch/quick-throw/lineout issue may be formally reviewed through the attacking passage before a try. The protocol allows two phases where that attacking passage is shorter than two phases.
• The final two phases: other listed infringements before a try—covering relevant parts of Laws 8, 10, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20 and 21—must have occurred within two phases of the try. The protocol's summary examples include offside, maul obstruction and whether a tackle was complete.

“Foul play can go back farther” does not mean the TMO may revisit every non-foul-play error from that same period. Each suspected act must fit its own category and window.

A phase is not every tackle or pass

The protocol defines an attacking passage of play as play since the last restart where there has been no turnover, or since the last turnover in possession. It defines a phase by the Laws of the Game as a scrum, lineout, ruck or maul.

That definition matters when counting backwards. A series of passes in open play is not automatically a series of phases, and a tackle by itself is not on the protocol's phase list. Identify the rucks, mauls, scrums and lineouts rather than relying on a broadcaster's informal phase counter.

The conversion does not close the review window

For a formal process following a try, World Rugby's protocol keeps the window open until the subsequent restart kick. It expressly says the conversion kick is not the cut-off. Any referral still has to concern a permitted incident within the correct look-back window.

Once the restart kick has been taken, that post-try window has closed. A late replay shown by the broadcaster does not itself give the match officials power to reopen the earlier score.

A quick tap or throw does not always silence the TMO

The protocol's clarification applies to the listed referral offences up to the start of a lineout following a penalty or free-kick to touch. If a quick tap or quick throw occurs before the TMO can intervene, the TMO may come in at the next available opportunity.

This is a narrow timing safeguard, not general permission to ignore the review windows. The original incident still has to be one the protocol permits the officials to review.

The protocol decides what can be checked; the law decides the result

A TMO review has no single automatic restart. The officials first establish the relevant facts, then apply the underlying law. A confirmed grounding may produce a try; an earlier knock-on may instead produce the scrum required by Law 11; offside or foul play may produce a penalty and, where appropriate, a card; a touch finding may lead to the applicable lineout or in-goal outcome.

Advantage is still part of the underlying law where it is available. The decisive point is that video review does not create a special “TMO penalty”: it changes or confirms the match decision under the law governing the reviewed act.

A normal TMO review is not the same as a bunker review

Ordinary foul-play referrals fit the TMO protocol and may address sanction. Elite competitions may also use an appointed Foul Play Review Officer (FPRO) for an off-field review after the referee has shown yellow and made the crossed-arms signal.

Under World Rugby's August 2025 implementation guideline, an FPRO has up to eight minutes to advise whether the card remains yellow or becomes a 20-minute red. If no FPRO is appointed, a TMO may assume that additional role where technology and support allow. In that off-field role, the TMO cannot recommend a permanent red; the referee can still issue a permanent red directly through the normal on-field process for conduct that is clearly highly dangerous and intentional.

World Rugby made the 20-minute red-card replacement and TMO role full law from 1 July 2026, but competitions choose the available review model according to their appointed officials, technology and implementation date.

A knock-on three rucks before the try

Situation: Blue knock the ball forward, recover it, retain possession through three later rucks and score. The incident has remained within the same attacking passage since the last restart or turnover.

World Rugby 2026 ruling: the knock-on can still be formally reviewed. The 1 January 2025 protocol assigns a clear Law 11 knock-on to the attacking-passage window, rather than the ordinary two-phase window. If the knock-on is established, the officials apply Law 11 instead of awarding the try.

Offside before three completed rucks

Situation: Blue are allegedly offside; play continues through three completed rucks before Blue score.

World Rugby 2026 ruling: that offside is outside the protocol's final-two-phase window for the try review. It does not become reviewable merely because the same team kept possession. The attacking-passage window applies to the specified knock-on, throw-forward and touch categories, not to every infringement.

The conversion has been kicked, but play has not restarted

Situation: a try is awarded and converted. Before the halfway restart, the TMO identifies a permitted clear infringement within its proper look-back period.

World Rugby 2026 ruling: a referral is still in time. The formal post-try window ends at the subsequent restart kick, not at the conversion. Whether the try changes depends on the reviewed incident and the evidence.

Penalty-only dangerous play is seen on delay

Situation: play continues while the TMO sees dangerous play on a delay screen and is certain the correct outcome is a penalty, with no card-level discussion required.

World Rugby protocol ruling: this fits the permitted live-call scope for Law 9 dangerous play. If the sanction needs discussion, the officials use the formal referral process instead.

How to read a TMO check

1. Name the format and competition. Confirm that a TMO was appointed and that the 15s protocol applies.
2. Name the legal question. Grounding, touch, kick at goal, pre-try infringement and foul play have defined scope.
3. Classify the process. Is this a live call or a formal referral with play and time stopped?
4. Choose the time window. Last restart, attacking passage or final two phases.
5. Count phases correctly. Use scrums, lineouts, rucks and mauls.
6. Check the referral deadline. After a try, the next restart kick—not the conversion—is the cut-off.
7. Apply the underlying law. The reviewed act determines the score, restart, penalty and any card.

Do not import the 15s look-back grid into sevens

World Rugby's separate Law 6.16 TMO Protocol – Sevens variation, effective 29 November 2024, is narrower. It covers specified in-goal and touch questions and serious foul play. After a try, the TMO may initiate a referral before the next restart for clear and obvious touch, offside, knock-on or forward pass, or foul play in the final phase before the try.

That final-phase sevens rule is not the 15s protocol's attacking-passage and two-phase structure. Other competitions may publish further operational regulations, so a tournament-specific process should be named before treating it as universal.

Four claims to avoid

• “The TMO can check anything before a try.” Law 6 and the protocol limit both subject and time.
• “Every infringement has a two-phase limit.” Foul play and the specified attacking-passage categories have different windows.
• “The conversion makes the try final.” The protocol's cut-off is the next restart kick.
• “A bunker decision is just a long TMO check.” An FPRO review is a distinct off-field foul-play process; a TMO performs it only where the competition's appointed-official model permits.

Governing-body sources and effective version

• World Rugby — current Laws of the Game, Law 6.15–6.16: Television match official
• World Rugby — Television Match Official Protocol, applicable 1 January 2025, sections 1–3 and annex 1
• World Rugby — current Laws of the Game, Law 7: Advantage
• World Rugby — July 2026 law updates: TMO role moved into full law from 1 July 2026
• World Rugby — implementation of the 20-minute red-card replacement in elite rugby, August 2025
• World Rugby — Law 6.16 TMO Protocol, Sevens variation, effective 29 November 2024

Checked 28 August 2026 against World Rugby's live Law 6, the protocol currently linked from that law, and the July 2026 implementation notice. The protocol PDF retains its January 2025 Global Law Trial label even though the TMO role became full law from 1 July 2026. New competitions or events starting after that date use the updated law; mid-competition implementation and the availability of TMO/FPRO technology remain matters for the relevant union or competition.