Jason Harries believes PRO14 must have TMOs at every game

Edinburgh wing Jason Harries has questioned the fairness of occasional Guinness Pro14 matches lacking a television match official [TMO] after he appeared to be unfortunate not to be awarded a score in the first half of last Friday's 20-17 loss to Benetton Treviso at Myreside.

Edinburghs Jason Harries, left, vies with Trevisos Minto Francesco during Fridays match

Harries squeezed over for what looked to be his side’s third try but Irish referee David Wilkinson deemed that he had lost control before rather than after grounding.

That could have given Edinburgh a much healthier half-time lead in a game which saw the Italians hit back in the second half and inflict a painful defeat.

“I think it definitely I got the ball down,” said the 28-year-old, who joined from London Scottish in the summer on a one-year deal.

“Where the ref has seen the ball come up, it was after I had placed the ball down and it has come up and then gone back down again. If there had been a TMO at the game, it would have been a close call with the ball on the line.

“Before the game, we were made aware that there was no TMO. I find it interesting that, because it was not a televised game, we were not able to have the TMO. With decisions like that it can come down to fine margins in a battle like that. When you have not got the TMO, it is on the call of the ref and sometimes they get it right, sometimes they do not.”

Former Wales age-grade internationalist Harries admitted, however, that they can’t blame the ref for the litany of things that went wrong on Friday.

“What we are putting out on the field at the moment is not acceptable, everyone knows that,” he said. “As players after the game, we are bitterly disappointed at the result. Rightly, people should be the way they are about that result. It is a loss in what should have been one of our targeted games to get four or five points.

“We know what we can do, it is just a question of applying it week-in, week-out.”

Welsh-speaking Harries is now looking forward to returning to his neck of the woods and trying to help Edinburgh get some pride back against the champions Scarlets in Llanelli on Saturday.

“I’m from Carmarthen so I come under the Scarlets region. If selected, it would be nice to go down there and to play against them. I am from that part of Wales and played for the Scarlet age grades so I’ll have a bit of a chip on my shoulder.”