Bledisloe Cup: Rugby Australia lodges formal complaint over referee Mathieu Raynal
Rugby Australia has lodged a formal complaint over referee Mathieu Raynal’s late Bledisloe Cup call, but a former leading ref has given a conflicting spin on the whole episode.
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Rugby Australia chiefs have formally complained to World Rugby about the officiating of the Bledisloe Cup match which the Wallabies lost 39-37 in Melbourne.
The Australian understands a letter outlining their concerns to the international governing body — as well as several verbal complaints to World Rugby bosses — centre on a late penalty from referee Mathieu Raynal that cost Australia a chance at regaining the Bledisloe Cup.
Raynal’s extraordinary decision to rule that five-eighth Bernard Foley took too long to kick the ball into touch has left Australian rugby bosses fuming.
The result was a penalty to the Wallabies was overturned and scrum feed awarded to the All Blacks from which fullback Jordie Barrett scored the matchwinning try after the siren for the visitors.
Raynal’s call in the penultimate minute was inconsistent with another decision he made minutes earlier.
A total of 85 seconds elapsed as Foley’s opposite Richie Mo’unga lined up for a penalty goal in the 71st minute.
In the wake of the two-point loss Wallabies coach Dave Rennie said he would demand a “please explain” from World Rugby.
Former Wallabies captain Tim Horan dubbed Raynal’s decision a “disgraceful” call.
The Wallabies had fought back from 18 points down, to claim a three-point lead with three minutes remaining.
With about 90 seconds left on the clock, Australia won a penalty on their own line.
Raynal then made the controversial call on Foley for time-wasting.
In footage released by Channel 9 on Sunday, acting Wallabies captain Nic White can be seen telling Raynal “that just cost us the Rugby Championship”.
“Nic I‘m sorry, you know exactly what I wanted,” Raynal told White.
“I told you two times and then you still continue (wasting time).”
In the Nine clip, White pointed out that Foley was in his kicking motion when Raynal made the call.
“I understand but he was just about to kick it out and for two seconds... mate, that just cost us the Rugby Championship.”
The Wallabies are sitting in third on the Rugby Championship table.
Former leading referee Nigel Owens has defended Raynal saying the decision to award a scrum feed to the All Blacks was a “strong refereeing decision”.
Owens, the game’s most capped international rugby referee, added that the involvements of the TMO needed to be scaled back drastically and said “the enemy of the good” was unfortunately crippling the game as World Rugby seeks “perfection”.
“Sometimes the unpopular decisions are the correct decisions,” Owens said.
“To be fair to the referee, he’s made a strong decision. This is strong refereeing.
“He’s clearly given warning, there’s a lot of time gone, the rest of the backline is shouting at Bernard to get the ball off the field.
“The easy thing for a referee to do here, which others may well have done, would be to ignore the time-wasting and let him kick it out 35 seconds after the penalty is given and do nothing about it. No-one would have had a go at the referee. So he’s actually made a strong refereeing decision.”
Owens admits he would have handled the situation differently and pointed to a European Champions Cup match where he added time on after a team attempted to slow the game down.
“If I was in this situation, what I would be doing after is reviewing my own decision, could I have done anything differently here, could I have dealt with this in a different way?” he said.
Meanwhile, Owens said World Rugby needed to scale back the involvement of the Television Match Official.
“I think the TMO is having far too much part in the game, I’d like to see referees going back out there and refereeing the games,” he said.
“Is the game becoming too technical? The problem you’re having is, people are wanting the game to be perfect. You can’t.
“You can’t play a perfect game of rugby, you can’t coach a perfect game of rugby and you certainly can’t referee a perfect game of rugby, and if you try to be perfect then the perfect becomes the enemy of the good.”
Gloating All Blacks go into bat for Bledisloe ref
- Jamie Pandaram
Ian Foster has poured fuel on the fire of the Bledisloe Cup aftermath, saying Wallabies players knew Bernard Foley was trying to waste time before referee Mathieu Raynal gave the critical free kick the eventually robbed the Wallabies of victory.
Before the All Blacks flew back to New Zealand on Friday, coach Foster reiterated his view that Raynal was correct to punish Foley for deliberately delaying play, despite the Wallabies playmaker insisting he wasn’t aware Raynal had blown time back on.
Footage that has gone viral on social media shows Foley’s teammates Lalakai Foketi, Andrew Kellaway and Len Ikitau screaming at the five-eighth to kick the ball out and reacting furiously when Raynal blew his whistle.
“He (Raynal) was very clear in his communication, as were a number of the Wallaby players who were encouraging Foley to speed up and kick the ball out, because they knew what he was doing,” Foster said.
We can bag the referee for that decision against @wallabies but just watch this replay and look at the teammates YELLING at Foley to hurry up and kick the ball #AUSvNZ@StanSportRugby
— Bernie Coen (@berniecoen) September 15, 2022
The decision was ridiculous but .... pic.twitter.com/bbg98CTYJP
“It was a very clear decision. When a referee warns a player two or three times and they don’t listen, then you put everything in your own hands. Let’s not forget all we won out of that was a scrum. We didn’t win the game. We won the game with our next play.”
Foley had been warned earlier in the match by Raynal about slowing play at a kick restart.
In the dying stages, after Foketi had won a crucial turnover on the Wallabies’ line with the home side leading 37-34 with 90 seconds remaining, Raynal asked Foley twice to kick to the sideline.
The French referee then stopped the clock, restarted it, and asked Foley to kick again. After another delay when Foley looked back at his teammates before starting the motion to kick, Raynal blew a free kick for the All Blacks.
They would win their scrum, attack the line and eventually score in the 81st minute to seal a stunning 39-37 victory.
But 33-year-old Foley, playing his first Test in three years, said in the overwhelming noise at Marvel Stadium packed with 53,000 fans, he hadn’t heard Raynal call time back on.
“There was a bit of confusion just in terms of personnel on the field for us, so just trying to get a call, it was pretty loud in the stadium there last night,” Foley said.
“My conversation with him was that he told me to hurry up, but the time was off. He didn’t really mention that there was going to be any further action than starting the clock.”
But Foster dismissed that as an excuse, and urged rugby fans not to villify Raynal.
“You can only stop the clock so many times,” Foster said.
“The game is under pressure from broadcasters to keep the clock ticking, so it’s hard for refs. It’s easy to point the finger, but they try to speed the game up. We’re supportive of the game being played faster with less time-wasting.
“You’ve got to feel for the Wallabies. It’s the first time it’s happened in some ways, but let’s not treat that as a reason to get upset with the referee.
“He was very clear with his communication and I’d be disappointed if he gets villainised for that.”
Meanwhile, Aussie lock Darcy Swain was cited by the SANZAAR judiciary for his shoulder into the leg of All Blacks centre Quinn Tupaea, that caused a season-ending ACL injury and left Foster fuming.
Swain was sin-binned by Raynal, but the SANZAAR citing commissioner deemed it had met the red card threshold. Swain will front a hearing via video conference next Monday.
BLEDISLOE: A REFEREEING DECISION OF ABJECT STUPIDITY
The match in Melbourne between Australia and New Zealand had it all. Thrills, spills, great tries, moments of aberration – but more than anything else, it will be remembered for a decision made by the referee, Mathieu Raynal, that will for ever be regarded somewhere between the worst and most bizarre that international rugby has yet to witness. It almost certainly cost Australia a rare win against their great rivals.
If referees were under orders to clamp down on time-wasting in Test rugby, the decision by the French official to turn an Australian penalty into a New Zealand scrum – five metres out, 90 seconds from full-time with the All Blacks a few breaths from yet another loss this year – might have gone down in history as one of the bravest ever pieces of officiating.
But there are no such orders. The whistle was a bolt from the blue that saved the All Blacks. Australia were awarded a penalty with 78 minutes and 25 seconds elapsed on the official clock. The referee was clearly heard to say: “You play now – time on.” And, it’s true, Bernard Foley, the Australian fly half, did not obey his summons snappishly.
Explaining the decision to effectively allow New Zealand the attacking position from which they would win this thrilling match 39-37 – with Jordie Barrett scoring the decisive 81st-minute try – Raynal informed the exasperated acting Australia captain, Nic White, that Foley was told time (the live match clock) was on and he must play immediately. The referee continued: “He wait, he wait, he wait and so it is a scrum to the All Blacks.”
If there had been 79 minutes and 55 seconds on the clock, when any deliberate delay would have ended the game with the ball kicked into touch, I would have stood up for a referee who is usually one of the best in the sport. But the minute-and-a-half gap between real and imagined time makes a massive difference.
Foley was doing what any kicker in the world would do, setting himself to make sure he didn’t slice the ball in field and, yes, taking another five or ten seconds up. He wasn’t cynically ending the contest. The 33-year-old had enjoyed a magnificent match. He kicked six out of six goals and was instrumental in two of Australia’s second-half fightback tries. Foley plays his rugby in Japan. This was his first Test since representing his country in the 2019 World Cup. He deserved a few deep breaths.
This wasn’t an obvious example of time-wasting. He had started his kick-clearance routine when the whistle metamorphosed a probable match-sealing kick to touch into a match-losing scrum. Whatever the laws of the game claim, here was a refereeing decision of abject stupidity.
78.25: Penalty.
— iainpayten (@iainpayten) September 15, 2022
78.50: Raynal - "Play on please".
78.55: Raynal - "Quick play".
78.56: Raynal blows time off. "Time off.
7 seconds elapses. "You play now. Time on."
Three seconds.
78.59: Raynal "Ten?" - Foley looks back, begins kick.
79.04: Blows freekick
39 seconds had elapsed
How inconsistent is Mathieu Raynal? Breakdowns and scrum calls he’s making it up as he goes along! #FrenchRefs#AUSvNZ
— Andy Goode (@AndyGoode10) September 15, 2022
Ian Foster saying in his post-match presser that the decision by French referee Mathieu Raynal was “clear cut†is an absolute disgrace.
— Christy Doran (@ChristypDoran) September 15, 2022
Please.
There might be people who trawl through the by-laws in some sort of misplaced defence of Raynal but rugby is a game where laws will create a dystopian 80 minutes of whistling unless they are subject to intelligent and knowing interpretation.
For some, the sport’s joy lies in its complexity, for others it’s a barrier to becoming a global game. Every breakdown in every match could be penalised if you look hard enough. Indeed, one of the big problems of this age is the misunderstood requirements of the TMO, who pries for something beyond the vision of the referee instead of ensuring that no great injustice occurs, nothing desperately dangerous.
Oh for a TMO to scream into Raynal’s ears: “Mathieu, have you gone mad? Swallow your pride and allow Foley to belt the ball into touch.” Players develop a feel for a referee and alter their game accordingly. There was no hint of anyone being pinged for time-wasting.
The Australian kick, turned matchwinning New Zealand scrum was the final set piece of the game. Few will remember the first. The home side had made a mess of the Kiwi kick-off. The ball bounced into touch; an early attacking lineout for New Zealand. Samisoni Taukei’aho held the ball, placed it on the touchline and jogged in field for a chat with his captain, Sam Cane. By the time he was set to throw, another ten or 11 seconds had elapsed. The throw, from the lineout set to leaving the hooker’s hand, lasted 30 seconds. If ever there was an unnecessary delay, this was it.
However, the game was in its first minute. A sympathetic piece of refereeing wouldn’t cause anyone to blink. Sadly, the same has to apply in the last as the first minute.
There was nothing worthy of turning the momentary delay of Foley into an exhausted act of madness. Unfortunately for the fly half and Australia this was a brutal reminder that empathy is the most important word in a referee’s vocabulary, but it’s not in the law book. A bloke called Nigel Owens made the point to me.
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Originally published as Bledisloe Cup: Rugby Australia lodges formal complaint over referee Mathieu Raynal
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