There were two crucial decisions that the referee made against the All Blacks which were plainly wrong, writes Gregor Paul. Photo / Getty
There were two crucial decisions that the referee made against the All Blacks which were plainly wrong, writes Gregor Paul. Photo / Getty
OPINION:
The Wallabies have a chance to make history this week at Eden Park, but it seems they are more focused on trying to revise the events of last week and are determined to have it officially acknowledged that they were denied a famous win in Melbourne by a refereeingbrain explosion.
They need to be careful about going down that road – because having asked World Rugby to investigate, they may not like what the governing body finds once it starts pulling apart Mathieu Raynal's refereeing performance in the first Bledisloe of 2022.
The Wallabies, and seemingly the wider rugby Australian rugby fraternity, are understandably carrying a sense of grievance about Raynal's last-minute decision to penalise Bernard Foley for time-wasting.
It was unprecedented and therefore shocking, and every New Zealander is frankly kidding themselves if they don't think they would be feeling similar outrage if it had been the All Blacks on the receiving end of such a decision.
Foley is one of the game's good guys and the Wallabies, unlike Argentina and South Africa, don't typically find imaginative ways to slow tests down and, no question, it was a hard call by Raynal.
It was genuinely tough on the Wallabies, that having so bravely and brilliantly fought back from 31-13 down to lead 37-34 with just one minute to hold on, they became the first victims of a law hardly anyone realised was in the book.
Referee Matthieu Raynal speaks to Nic White of the Wallabies. Photo / Photosport
It's no surprise that in the days since the game, the Wallabies keep coming back to why them and why then, but despite their determination to wallow in victimhood and blame Raynal for their loss, they are trying to make a dangerously selective revisionist version of events.
Raynal may have shocked with his timing, but however tough that call may have been, it was justified by law. It was not only fair, but it was also well communicated both in the build-up and post the decision being made.
If Raynal was having a meltdown, it was the most calm, clear-headed, rational meltdown.
Secondly, the decision didn't of its own accord deny Australia the win. The All Blacks weren't handed a victory by Raynal, but a scrum, an opportunity to have one last play to rescue a game they should have put away 20 minutes earlier.
But the bigger problem for the Wallabies in casting Raynal as the killer of their Bledisloe dream, is that the All Blacks were arguably the bigger victims on the night, as there were two crucial decisions that the referee made which were plainly wrong.
The first was the failure to red card Wallabies lock Darcy Swain for what, once the right camera angle picked it up in all its gory detail, appeared to be a deliberate and highly illegal cleanout on Quinn Tupaea.
Swain, who will be in front of the judiciary this week, will protest his innocence, but the reaction of All Blacks hooker Samisoni Taukei'aho, who probably had the best view of it and is a supremely calm and level-headed young man, was animated to the point of bordering on incensed.
All Blacks midfielder Quinn Tupaea appeared to be deliberately targeted by Wallabies lock Darcy Swain. Photo / Photosport
And the other major failing in Raynal's performance was his inability to control Foley after Wallabies fullback Andrew Kellaway scored the first of his two tries to peg the score back to 31-18 with 20 minutes to go.
Raynal awarded the try, but after he had done so and Foley had set-up to take the conversion, the referee was alerted to a possible forward pass in the build-up.
He told Foley to wait while he walked back to the posts and called for a replay to be shown on the big screen.
As he waited, he turned to Foley and told him again to wait, only for the Wallabies first-five to smack the ball over the posts.
Raynal, should have immediately ruled out the conversion – he probably should have initially taken the ball from the kicker while he reviewed the action – but instead, he temporarily seemed to believe Foley was in charge of the game and abandoned the review to let the try and conversion stand.
Every angle clearly shows the pass Foley made to Kellaway was forward – both his hands and the ball travelled forward – and so if there was a rank injustice in Melbourne, it was felt by the All Blacks who should have had longer playing against 14 men and should have been scrummaging on their own 22 after 60 minutes, still 31-13 ahead.
The Wallabies, in their heightened emotional state, are looking for confirmation that there has been a miscarriage of justice.
And having made their complaint to World Rugby, they will be proven right – except they won't be considered the victims.
