SYDNEY (Reuters) – Mathieu Raynal’s decision to penalise Bernard Foley for time wasting late in the test against the All Blacks on Thursday will not be quickly forgotten but Australians are unlikely to get much sympathy from fans of other nations.
The history of rugby union tests is littered with instances of controversial refereeing decisions that have impacted results and not just from the days when partial local officials oversaw tour matches.
The last-gasp 39-37 defeat that followed the French referee’s decision to turn a Wallabies penalty into an All Blacks scrum because Foley delayed his kick inevitably provoked a violent reaction in Australia.
World Cup winning Wallabies centre Tim Horan described the match-turning call as “disgraceful”, coach Dave Rennie said he would ask World Rugby for an explanation, and Friday’s newspapers were united in their condemnation.
“The staggering decision of Raynal to impose himself in such a significant manner, at such a significant moment, summed up perfectly the rapidly expanding problem of rugby refereeing in the last few years,” Iain Payten wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald.
The All Blacks were unsurprisingly content with what they saw as a correct interpretation of the laws, which helped them to keep the Bledisloe Cup for a 20th straight year and set them up nicely for another Rugby Championship title.
New Zealand’s lack of sympathy for their neighbours might also come from having experience of a controversial late decision by a French referee that cost them dearly in 2017.
In the final seconds of the third test against the British and Irish Lions, Romain Poite infamously downgraded a kickable penalty award to the All Blacks into a scrum.
Poite later conceded that he had been wrong but the record books still show that the Eden Park match and the series both ended in draws.
Scottish rugby fans still rail about a last-minute decision that decided their quarter-final against the Australians at the 2015 World Cup.
With the Scots leading by two points and seconds remaining, South African referee Craig Joubert awarded a kickable penalty to Australia that World Rugby later conceded should have instead been a scrum.
It was Foley who coolly slotted the ball between the posts to secure his side’s place in the semi-finals.
James Slipper, Australia’s captain on Thursday, was a replacement in a 2011 World Cup quarter-final that is still remembered by South African fans largely for the officiating.
The reigning champions dominated possession and territory but lost 11-9 to a David Pocock-inspired Australia in a defeat many Springboks fans put down to the laissez-faire refereeing of Bryce Lawrence.
New Zealander Lawrence never refereed another Super Rugby match in South Africa and retired the following year after being dropped from the international panel.
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney, editing by Sam Holmes)
