Former Test referee Owen Doyle has criticised South African TMO Marius Jonker for missing British & Irish Lions hooker Dan Sheehan’s “disgraceful cheap shot” on Wallabies flyhalf Tom Lynagh.

Writing in his Irish Times column, Doyle highlighted Jonker’s failure to intervene after the cleanout during the third Test in Sydney that earned Sheehan a four-week ban.

Doyle argued the sanction was lenient and that the incident should never have been missed in the first place.

“Sheehan, inexcusably, had a real go at the prone Tom Lynagh,” Doyle wrote. “It was an unworthy and disgraceful cheap shot … It was not picked up, a negative mark against the TMO, South Africa’s Marius Jonker.”

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Dan Sheehan banned for four matches (reduced to three with a coaching intervention course) for this clear-out on Tom Lynagh. pic.twitter.com/vOJkkf1uSo

— Ben Coles (@bencoles_) August 4, 2025

Doyle also questioned why Jonker flagged a minor incident that referee Nika Amashukeli quickly dismissed, while missing what he described as “a typical Owen Farrell shoulder hit” that went unpunished.

“The TMO needed to be better,” Doyle added, urging World Rugby to address the contentious officiating decisions that overshadowed parts of the series.