Paddy O'Brien, famous as an international referee and now the International Rugby Board's refereeing boss, is keen that there should be greater use of technology in rugby.

New Zealand's Radio Sport reports that O'Brien cited the forward pass that was missed in the lead-up to Richie McCaw's crucial try against the Springboks at the weekend.

O'Brien said that rugby referees should get the same advantage as league officials do to ask for a review of the build-up to a try. At present rugby referees were at a serious disadvantage. The danger was that mistakes of this nature would increase.

O'Brien says he had approached the IRB council on the issue and was turned down.

The present protocol restricts the referee to using the television match official only for grounding the ball and a touch-line decision near the goal-line.

A while ago South Africa experimented with the broader use of the TMO in the lead-up to a try, as O'Brien contemplates, and in the identification of foul play. The extended use of the TMO went on trial in the Currie Cup and after six weeks André Watson, South Africa's refereeing boss, said that the concept was brilliant but needed refinement. His instruction to referees then was that they referred law rulings to the TMO only when they were in doubt about the legality of the try and that they referred foul play only when they had seen foul play but needed more detail or the identification of a guilty party.