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Wallabies still reeling from Bledisloe blow up as official complaint lodged

(Photo by Morgan Hancock/Getty Images)

Five days after the dramatic Melbourne Test, Australian rugby remains consumed by contentious calls in the Wallabies 39-37 Bledisloe Cup loss to New Zealand.

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Rugby Australia has written to the sport’s global governing body voicing its concerns about refereeing given the late and questionable time-wasting call with the match in the balance last Thursday.

French referee Mathieu Raynal penalised Bernard Foley for holding up the game as the five-eighth shaped to kick the ball to touch with less than two minutes left.

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New Zealand rugby pundits react to one of the craziest ends to a match ever | The Breakdown

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New Zealand rugby pundits react to one of the craziest ends to a match ever | The Breakdown

Australia are still fuming at the decision, after which Jordie Barrett scored a try from a New Zealand scrum five metres in front of the posts to snatch victory.

A Rugby Australia spokesperson on Monday confirmed to Reuters they had urged World Rugby to take seriously concerns about officiating in general.

“We’ve been lobbying World Rugby for some time on this,” the spokesperson said.

Speaking to journalists on Monday afternoon, prop Allan Alaalatoa said he was unaware of Rugby Australia’s complaint but players were still hurting from the referee’s call.

“We just got unlucky at the end there. There was definitely disappointment over the last couple of days and over the weekend,” he said.

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“But we can only control what we can control and you’ve got to take the ref’s decision out of it.

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“As leaders, we looked at that moment and see how we can be better. Not only at that, but throughout our game, management throughout the whole game.”

If Australia have complaints over the time-wasting whistle, the All Blacks are still seething over a first-half attack by Darcy Swain.

The Australian lock was yellow-carded for a dangerous clean-out on Quinn Tupaea which ruptured his medial collateral ligament in his left knee and partially tore his ACL.

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Sanzaar has cited Swain for foul play, hauling him to a disciplinary hearing late on Monday that could result in a weeks-long suspension.

“He basically didn’t see it coming. He was a sitting duck. It was a bit of a free shot,” All Blacks playmaker Beauden Barrett told reporters.

“I feel for him because he’s going to be out of the game for a long time … we don’t like to see these sorts of injuries.”

Alaalatoa said Swain was “devastated for Quinn” after the game.

“There was no intention there to injure him the way that he did,” he said.

“We definitely as players… throw the arm around him because he’s probably copping a fair bit on social media.”

There was further disappointment for the Wallabies on Monday, with confirmation of a ruptured achilles to Melbourne Rebels flanker Rob Leota.

The Wallabies have now lost three squad members with achilles injuries in the past six weeks, with Leota following Quade Cooper and Samu Kerevi.

The Wallabies’ Rugby Championship concludes with the second Bledisloe Cup Test on Saturday at Eden Park, where they haven’t beaten the All Blacks for 36 years.

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4 Comments
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Northandsouth 777 days ago

"Breaking news: Wallabies not yet ready to take ownership for 10's blatant timewasting. Intend to continue to pretend several players weren't fully aware of ref's repeated warnings." I'm fascinated to see which way the 'backlash' happens this Saturday: Wallabies for feeling they were shafted or ABs for feeling their win is being deleted from reality. Kiiiiiinda hoping for both =D

I
Izak 778 days ago

Cry babies - i hope it hurts for years to come. Did you complain when Nic White was acting - no - all aussies enjoyed it. Well enjoy your loss. Are you going include the dirty play - Swain - your complain. I hope next Sat is going to increase your crying.

D
David 778 days ago

Seriously? An “official” complaint!? Have they watched the spirder-cam footage that makes it abundantly clear what was going to happen? After getting all the calls from the ref in the first game against SA, and then every Oz fan slagging Saffas off for complaining about the ref, this could be seen as “rich”. But really, it’s just karma. Suck it up princesses.

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

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Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

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Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

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