The Man Upstairs: Interview with a Rugby World Cup TMO

Rugby fans the world over will know of him as Ben Skeen, only one of four TMO officials at the Rugby World Cup. However, to 2500 Auckland Grammar students and me, he is Mr Skeen, the associate headmaster.

I sat down with him to discuss his experience of the World Cup and to account his passage to the TMO box.

1. Making the decision to change from playing rugby to refereeing rugby must have been difficult. What made you pursue officiating and when did you make that decision?

I was a terrible rugby player, so the decision wasn’t very difficult to be honest. I was very good at tackling a tackle bag, but couldn’t hit anything that moved. I was a bit of an embarrassment on the field, but I really loved the game and wanted to stay connected.

So I thought, with my communication skills and my enjoyment for dealing with people, that refereeing was a really good fit. I stopped playing rugby at the end of form three and picked up officiating in form five.

Coming from a rugby family, with my grandfather captaining Auckland for several years and representing the All Blacks, all we ever spoke about was rugby. By form five I knew I wanted to do something to stay with the game and so that’s why I pursued refereeing.

2. You started officiating in 2005 at Heartland Championship level and constantly moved up the ranks, how much determination and resolve is required to now be officiating at the highest level?

I was very fortunate to make the New Zealand high performance squad in 2005, at the age of 20, and since then it’s been a massive learning curve. There is absolutely no doubt that it requires years of experience and a lot of mental fortitude. These are required in order not only to climb to the high performance or international levels of the game, but also to deal with the pressures that occur at those level.

3. You began television match officiating, while still being a match referee, in 2005, can you outline your transition to the box?

My first TMO appointment was in the Air New Zealand Cup in 2005. However, I was also out in the middle as a referee from 2005 to 2009 and ran touch up and down the touchline. By 2009, the [New Zealand Rugby Union] were looking to make television match officiating more specialised and therefore, at Super Rugby level, I ended up gaining a lot more experience.

The real turning point came at the end of 2011 and start of 2012, where I was consistently siting in a TMO box. I also gave up running in the middle due to continuous injuries at that point. 2012 was the start of a brand new journey to being specialised and with a goal to hopefully become one of the best in the world.

4. Can you talk us through your preparation ahead of officiating an important match?

We need to remain fully aware of what is happening in World Rugby, so we have some wonderful software that allows us to pick up key games that are televised around the world. That software allows us to break down a game into the critical decisions, so we actually understand how referees are officiating around the world and we use those as case studies for when we come together ahead of an important game.

Using that software, I would stay connected with the competition that I am about to referee in. For an overseas fixture, we will arrive a couple of days beforehand or at least a day ahead of the game and we will meet up with the referee team. About 48 to 24 hours in the lead-up to the game, we share meals with the on-field referees and we will talk about the game ahead in an informal sense, and then at some stage we will have a formal meeting.

5. You were one of only four TMOs at the recently concluded Rugby World Cup. How much of an honour was it to be named among the top referees in the world?

A real privilege. When I arrived in London and looked around the room, at the 12 best referees in the world and seven outstanding assistant referees and then there’s just four of us [TMOs], you look and go “this is an honour”. You acutely understand that the whole function of us being there is to serve the game and to make sure the decisions are accurate, to allow players some boundaries in order to play in a really positive fashion.

We did a lot of travel as TMOs as we had to officiate 10 pool games. By the time we reached the quarter-finals then [World Rugby] started to look at the team of four and how they potentially gel together and who’s been in good form or showed good accuracy in the pool stages.

6. You were the TMO for several important matches in the World Cup, such as the Australia versus Scotland quarter-final and the Australia versus Argentina semi-final. How difficult is it to officiate tournament defining matches, is it different from any other game?

You like to say it’s not different to any other game, but there is a whole mount of tension in the lead-up to those important games. The understanding that a team will go home after each of those games is really different to the pool stages.

You also understand that this is part of a four-year program for these teams and they had set goals about being here at this time of the tournament. We are really fortunate to deal with sports psychologists who come in and talk to us about focusing in on what the process is and just being clear in the moment and trusting our instincts. No doubt there are butterflies, but you just have to tell yourself that the reason there are butterflies is because it matters.

7. The TMO nowadays has more control on the game and can make more calls than ever before. What is your opinion on these changes?

There is very fine balance and there are two schools of thought. One of the schools of thought is that there is too much TMO interaction, and I can understand and appreciate where that comes from. There are so many components that occur in one phase, let alone several phases, while the ball is live.

Equally, I would challenge people to consider, at the same time they don’t want TMOs to be involved then there are decisions that we have said via a protocol, TMOs won’t get involved in. Then when we have defining moments they want the TMO to be involved. It’s a catch 22.

8. Has this truly been the greatest tournament of all time?

I had a real privilege of being involved in the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand and I thought that was a wonderful tournament that really embraced all that is great about our country. However, England 2015 was something very special, for myself as I made my way to Twickenham, a place people refer to as the home of rugby.

Where it was really special as I made my way throughout the country was Wales, and the way that locality really embraced the tournament. There were sold out stadiums everywhere, nations were adopted by the locals and there were some wonderful theatres for some brilliant rugby to be played.

9. As a proud All Blacks supporter and with All Blacks connections in your family, how much did their World Cup victory mean to you?

I think rugby holds a very special place in this country and the fact that Richie McCaw, Steve Hansen and the entire All Blacks squad have really gone out as leaders throughout the last four years… it was wonderful to see them bear the fruits of their labour.

It would have been a real shame after the tremendous periods of dominance they have had over the last four years to not cement that with another tournament win. I was incredibly proud to be at Twickenham at that time as a New Zealander. The atmosphere was electric and the All Blacks support dominated the Wallabies support. It was weird to see so much support for New Zealand in the cauldron of British rugby, which temporarily became an All Black den.