By Wayne Smith
The gut-wrenching loss in Melbourne may have been the hardest Bledisloe defeat to stomach since the Penalty Try Test of 1968 but, for the good of the game in Australia, the Wallabies must learn all the painful lessons laid out before them.
Lesson No.1, No.2 and No.3: Read the referee!
Bernard Foley might have had a generally wonderful return to Test rugby, but he finished the match tone-deaf to the exasperation that had built up in Raynal’s voice
Audio of the now infamous 79th-minute incident lays bare Raynal’s clear instructions to Foley to take the kick for touch. When Foley deferred, Reynard whistled “time off” and told him in no uncertain terms that he must kick it the moment he called “time on”. Then he re-started the clock. Again, he ordered Foley to “play on”. Again, the Australian five-eighth dithered. “He wait, he wait, he wait”, as Raynal later explained to Nic White, the acting captain.
By this stage, Foley’s own teammates could sense the situation was unravelling fast and screamed at him to kick it. But by the time he eventually started his run-up, Reynard had run out of patience.
By any measure, it was an outrageous call by the referee. Raynal had not acted on any of the many incidents of time-wasting earlier in the game. Why now?
That said, it was a welcome development, in my eyes at least, when the Frenchman went straight to yellow cards without any preamble.
Referee Mathieu Raynal explains his 79th-minute decision to Nic White and Bernard Foley.Credit:Getty
None of this, “Captain, there have been five offside penalties against your side … the next one goes to the bin” nonsense. Players don’t need a refresher course on the laws every single game. It was a pity, though, that Wallabies halfback Jake Gordon received a yellow for being sucked under the cement roller of the NZ maul like Kevin Kline at the climax of A Fish Called Wanda.
A player of Foley’s experience should have read the warning signs. It doesn’t matter whether Raynal was grandstanding or being churlish at the finish. Foley’s sole responsibility at that point was to ensure Australia closed out the win. If Raynal wanted him to tap dance all the way to the lineout, Foley should have immediately thrust his arms by his side and started channelling Michael Flatley.
It seemed that the Wallabies had gradually aggravated Raynal as the match progressed. Foley repeatedly took longer than All Blacks playmaker Richie Mo’unga to kick for touch from penalties, at least three times eating up 35 seconds or more with the task.
And a word of advice to perennially happy hooker Folau Fainga’a. The next time you require medical attention after being illegally body slammed into the pitch, as you were by All Black tighthead Tyrel Lomax, please make sure you don’t have a big smile all over your face when you get back to your feet. It just encourages the referee to think you were trying to milk a yellow card in the first place.
When Raynal decided to explain his controversial decision, he asked White who was Wallabies skipper in place of James Slipper. I confess my heart sank when White indicated he himself had that honour. Nothing against the Wallabies halfback but he is the most argumentative player on the field and I feared he could make an already complicated situation absolutely nightmarish.
Instead, White remained respectful and generally composed. For a moment, it was difficult there to remember this was the same player who had attempted to fake an injury against the Springboks in Adelaide. It was a welcome return to normality.
As for the other bete noire in the Wallabies side, Australians will have to wait until Wednesday evening to learn Darcy Swain’s fate. The SANZAR judiciary doesn’t have to determine what was in the lock’s head when he targeted Quinn Tupaea’s knee, merely whether he met the red card threshold.
But the fans will care.
Australians don’t mind a bit of aggro. They have saved a special place in their hearts for Steve “The Hooded Executioner” Finnane and Michael Brial – who waited four years to get even with All Black Frank Bunce for a vicious clean-out at a ruck. And what about Tony Shaw who, as captain, was being lectured by referee Roger Quittendon about the need to play nicely when he suddenly backed away and floored Scottish lock Bill Cuthbertson – and remained on the field!
What Australians won’t tolerate is sneaky foul play with the intention of maiming an opponent. Not suggesting Swain did that. Indeed, team-mate Allan Alaalatoa was adamant he didn’t. But it didn’t look good, and Swain needs to be very mindful of that fact.
Australia is not flavour of the month in rugby these days. Maybe the fact it is leading the international campaign to speed up the game is causing it to be judged more harshly, but this is not a time to be testing referees.
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