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'I take total responsibility for what I did': Raynal on time wasting call

Referee Mathieu Raynal speaks to Nic White and Bernard Foley of the Wallabies during The Rugby Championship & Bledisloe Cup match between the Australia Wallabies and the New Zealand All Blacks at Marvel Stadium on September 15, 2022 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

Referee Mathieu Raynal has addressed his controversial decision to penalise Bernard Foley in the first Bledisloe Cup Test against the All Blacks, saying “I try to do what is the most fair.”

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Raynal’s decision to reverse a penalty and give the trailing All Blacks a scrum just under Australia’s posts in the dying seconds of the match were met by cries of “you’ve just cost us the Rugby Championship” by stand-in skipper Nic White after the final whistle was blown at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne. The All Blacks subsequently scored from the scrum, winning the contest 39-37.

After being crowned French rugby’s referee of the season yesterday, Raynal discussed the entire affair.

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“I take total responsibility for what I did, 100%,” the 41-year-old said.

“I had a necessary reason for making the decision even if it was a strong one, which caused people to talk.

“I try to do what is the most fair. That’s at the heart of my job.

“Sometimes it creates tensions, frustrations, arguments but I take responsibility over what I do.”

Wallabies fly-half Foley said after the match that “there was a bit of confusion” due to the volume of the crowd, and that “he’d told me to hurry up, but time was off so he didn’t really mention that there was going to be further action than starting the clock.”

Raynal also responded to those claims by the Australian, saying: “I told a player five times to kick the ball to touch. I couldn’t do otherwise.

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“It’s not me who decided to make the decision, it was the player who forced me to make it.”

The Frenchman also explained how he had discussed the decision with Wallabies head coach Dave Rennie after the match, who was bemused by the decision. Rennie had even said how Australia had contacted World Rugby over the decision, and said that “they agreed with our concerns.”

“I had a discussion with him which was very sincere and honest,” Raynal said.

“He was satisfied by the refereeing during the entirety of the match. Obviously, we didn’t agree on the final decision.

“I can guarantee we had a calm conversation.”

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Comments

9 Comments
G
Greg 918 days ago

Akansenga, next time you consult your Thesaurus, do us all a favour and look up 'tautology' and 'oxymoron'.

C
CRZ38L 918 days ago

Still doesn't clarify why he chose one particular discrestion above many others that occurred during the test. Anyway, it's done. Move on.

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JW 21 minutes ago
'Matches between Les Bleus and the All Blacks are rarely for the faint-hearted.'

Well a) poor French results doesn’t seem to effect the situation much. In fact one of the reasons given for this selection policy is that the French don’t tune in for foreign rugby content on the other side of the world, at a time when theyre not having their vino. So who would know the results? And b) this is the crux of the matter, they are legally abided to play them as part of WRs tier 1 reciprocal tours programme. The only real choice for the SH team is to treat it the same, which is fine when teams are happy to do that, but the AB’s have a totally anthesis policy/mentality so would never use the games in the same way.


So alligned with b) the only real option is to complain to those in control. I suspect that’s why weve seen France reneging on the practice, and you can only be left to think that if they hadn’t reneged, WR would have done something more drastic about it. Which of course would mean not just telling them to bugger off when they want to tour, it’s no one playing them (from t1 at least) at all (assuming they have no interest in scheduling match’s outside the windows, like Ireland and NZ are doing).


Then of course that means no involvement of France in the Nations Championship. Which means they are automatically the last ranked team in 6N to qualify, so the actual worst team in 6N gets to compete in it, making a mockery of the promotion and relegation WR wanted to happen between T1 and T2 for qualifying purposes. Yup, b) is just something nobody wants to happen. Well done FFR and LNR for making the tour work instead (how well is yet to be seen).

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