Wales seriously unhappy with lack of communications between the officials during Italy clash

Six Nations chiefs were left red-faced in Rome when the communications between the referee and Television Match Official were down for the entirety of the Italy-Wales match.

Frenchman Mathieu Raynal had two key decisions to make with the help of the TMO, but could not hear him, so the fourth official had to run on with a pair of headphones and a walkie-talkie so he could talk to David Grashoff upstairs.

Luckily both decisions were correct and did not affect the score. When Jonathan Davies’ second-half try was ruled out for a knock-on, and Thomas Youngs’ late score was also chalked off as Gareth Anscombe’s try in the build-up was forward Raynal consulted with Wayne Barnes and Shuhei Kubo – his assistants – before consulting the TMO.

Referee Mathieu Raynal speaks with the Television Match Official to review a try decision

Usually the referee has a direct line to the TMO via an earpiece, but the connection was faulty all match. The sight of Raynal having to use the headphones summed up an average day all round at the Stadio Olimpico.

Sportsmail understands that Wales were seriously unhappy with the lack of communications between the officials – and at one point in the second half were attempting to make a pair of substitutions but could not because Raynal was on the opposite side of the field overseeing a scrum, and could not hear them.

‘I think there was a breakdown in communication with a technical fault,’ said centre and captain Jonathan Davies.

‘Unfortunately we did not get the rewards for our good play. It is always a lot to talk about with things like that but it did not affect the result of the game thankfully.

‘We just had to make sure we made the right decisions.’