I thought the ref was mad at first. Then I rewatched and he did warn him a lot and Foleys own players were screaming at him. They seemed to understand the message better than Foley.

I appreciate this channel for being unbiased...and showing love to the game. I love the subtle dig at the referee, with your choice of jersey even more

It’s frustrating as a Wallabies supporter to see the game be so close then lost in the last few minutes, but in my opinion Foley should’ve just kicked it as soon as the ref called him on it.

Foley was knowingly pushing the ref to the limits of his patience - unfortunately he miscalculated and cost his team the match - his mates were shouting at him so they clearly understood the situation

I just realised that you get the same punishment (a yellow card) in rugby for slapping someone's moustache and intentionally trying to break someone's leg.

I remember a game years ago between Ospreys and Connacht with a similar situation, Connacht had a 1 or 2 point lead and were on their own goal line and had a kick with time almost up. The ref pinging them for time wasting but he actually gave Ospreys a penalty, right in front of the sticks. Ospreys kick it and win the game. But yeah, the fact I am going back maybe 15 years with that one shows how rarely it is enforced. I 100% agree with you that context matters. Good balanced video as always.

Unfortunately the Ref got it right, too many times the Ref called to play the ball, that is the point!, regardless if it didn't happen before or not. The context is that it is almost the end of the match, don't ask a French ref to be more explanatory in English

Were we not entertained?.......I was!! Well done Aussies, well done AB's, well done Ref Raynal.

Timewasters are commonly pinged in Rugby 7 because that type of bulldust is being stamped out. Topman Raynal!

Tbh I wish free kicks for slow play was awarded very often (multiple times per game). Far too many teams slow down the game with water breaks, injury breaks, team meetings etc to suit their fitness level. Want to have a fake injury break, the director of rugby water break or team meeting? Free kick to the opposition, watch the fake injured player get up like nothing happened. I don't watch much rugby league but this year I watched the state of origin and couldn't believe how much faster the game is (in terms of breaks in play). They may take a break for 1 or 2min but then it's back to full throttle. It made me feel soo frustrated at how slow our game has become.

At first I was on Australia's side with this but then I saw another video that showed how many times the ref emphatically told him to play on. This is 100% on Foley.

Great analysis, very balanced, your three points get to the heart of it. At the end of the day, a winning side needs to take the ref out of the game. I'm a Wallabies supporter. Fair play to the All Backs for a momentous win. What a game! Can't wait for Eden Park!!

At the time I thought fair enough from ref as he was warned heaps etc, (no one is talking about it) but in the 8th minute Foley was warned for same thing, pissing around before kicking out. However with other refs in similar cases (teams stalling) usually they blow time off, player kicks out, then ref blows time on as players gathering for line out. Not blow time on immediately.

In pretty strong agreement with you here Mark. For a law never enforced, including a penalty warning when he says "we play now" seems to be pretty necessary to me.

Thorough. Balanced. Nuanced. Maybe you should talk about referee decisions more often 😂

Maybe the clock should start when he kicks the ball instead of leaving it up to the ref, considering the ref isn't playing and it doesn't matter how long he takes if the clock is off. Can you imagine a world cup decided off of that decision,I'd be embarrassed

There is no Right or Wrong, there is only the Ref's decision. All the way through all rugby games this holds true. In this case he was clear enough to Foley. So his first language isn't English, but Foley isn't a kid and this isn't about icecream. The message was clear enough for Poketi and other Aus backs.

Good points, also didn't Foley ignore the refs call NOT to take the conversion kick to one of Kellaways tries because he wanted to check something with the TMO? As you say, context really does matter in this instance.

Maybe rare in new zealand and australia, pretty common in europe. Its actually arule that should be more enforced in the southern hemisphere. And its one thing i hate about rugby when players waste time. I mean if a game has a minute to go and the leading team is under pressure and they get a penalty, you might aswell end the game if they going to take an entire minute to take a penalty

i think considering how many times the lead changed and the distinct possibility that the all blacks could have scored the time at the end was a lot more precious and the ref did this after multiple warnings during the game. if you look at the video you will see foley talk to a forward before they get into the huddle and then he proceeds to delay the kick while they huddle up. then theres the fact that the aus backs heard it themselves. sounds like it was a deliberate attempt for foley to make the kick the last movement in the game. they knew that given 90 seconds the all blacks could definitely score (which they did). the ref blew the whistle, then said time on then said we play now, then says 10! 10! i think foley wasn't unaware i think he deliberately pretended not to hear it even when people farther from the ref heard it.

I see what your argument is but I would actually argue the opposite. I think refs are having to “coach” players too much these days. How many times do you “roll away x” or “stay onside y” or “no z, release!” I would prefer they just ping the players immediately and you would then have players having to adapt and as a result more ball in play time. Just my thoughts anyway

To put it in context... it was 37 game clock seconds ( 78:27 to 79:04 ) from whistle to whistle..and Foley was literally in the act of kicking when the whistle went. At 33.43 AB's get a relieving penalty 5m out from own line when Aus hot on attack (co-incidentally almost exactly same bit of grass as the final decision )... it is in their interest to slow the game down somewhat as Aus has the momentum.....they can slow it down and take a breather...we go to replays on the telecast...but the next bit of live coverage comes back to the teams walking toward the lineout....the time is 34.28...so 45 seconds have elapsed. Now... take off perhaps 10 secs for the kick to travel and the teams to travel about 10m toward the lineout ( AB's have walked about 10m )..... and it would have been about 35 seconds between whistle and kick... so basically the same time as the one that got reversed.... This happens hundreds of times a year in test rugby... for the ref to suddenly pick this last moment to "crack down" on time wasting is beyond logic in my ( obviously very biased ) opinion.

"If I say guys hurry up and eat your dinner" ..... Hahaha Said with the voice of a defeated parent! I feel your pain bro!! Love it.

Wonderful video. Really enjoy when you give your opinions as well as.your usual summary of what happened. I am a Wallabies fan who never played the game so was interested to read takes on the penalties from around the world from more knowledgeable people. What will be interesting going forward is how any similar situation will be adjudicated. I remember a few years ago in the NBA a top player - the 2x MVP Greek Giannis Antetokounmpo - was called for taking longer then 10 seconds for a free throw, which you never see called. Afterwards every time he got a penalty the crowd would call out "1:", "2"... to see how long he was taking. Not expecting the crowd to do the same in Union but I certainly expect a few articles going back and looking at how long kicks for touch take in games going forward. Overall would certainly like the game to be sped up, but it has to be a continuous and consistent in application, not one pulled out at the end of a game.

Very good vid, 100% context matters. As for the “rareness” of the call. This is super common in the northern hemisphere. I recall 5/6 times in the last few 6Ns, as well as regularly within the URC & Top14. Noted Montpellier moaned a lot last year for being pinged for slowing the play and not playing. The term “we play” he used is the exact syntax translation from what they use in French. It’s very much more a normal thing in the northern hemisphere; now it’s in the south. It sucks that it’s a talking point and it’s impacted the game in this way, but I feel it’s more of a Southern Hemisphere catching some northern hemisphere regular call.

It's in the rulebook, he gave warnings and foley's teammates were shouting at him to kick. No blame on the ref for this one.

The fact you were able to do a video on this alone is frickin epic

Your description is clear and much more insightful than most of the commentators

What makes this call different from all the other "time wasting" incidents that are not usually called by referees - is the fact that the ref stopped the clock to give Foley a fair warning about it. Maybe the ref did not say something like "kick the ball within the next five seconds", but he used word like "play on please" and "quick play" a couple of times. Also, the fact that he actually stopped the clock to talk to Foley, and then shouted "10" after he restarted the clock and Foley still did not adhere, showed that the ref did what was reasonably expected from him to do (when enforcing a law that is rarely used).

It is one of those calls that if it goes your way you're going to agree with the ref and obviously if it goes against you are going to feel hard done by. Given the rarity of a call like that I think it is a poor call but the as someone who wanted a Wallabies win I may be proving my point.

Good chat in this hot topic mate. Upon reflection his team mates were a screaming at him...

Mate I was raised to believe we must accept the ref's decision.my question is what would have happened if given the same situation with the AB'S at Eden Park?

I think it was the right call..the problem is, is it’s inconsistent, he wouldn’t call it 5 minutes before

Just my 2 cents..but while we're being finickity...when are they going to ping kickers for stealing meters on penalty restarts? Foley went past the mark 5 meters all game long. And he is not the only one. They enforce scrums and lineout restarts to the centemeter but penalty restarts seem to be left to the kickers imagination.

Meanwhile Australia has been doing some sus stuff in this championship and yet no one really is putting a flashlight over their antics? Darcy trying to injure someone and Nic whites dive should be focused on here, I will say though the ref definitely was in the right here, if you’re going to be unsportsmanlike and waste time then fine here’s a penalty, if you’re going to cheat do it fair

Reynal may not have been reacting just to Foley's delay in taking the penalty kick, but also to the Wallaby forwards' apparent disinterest. Reynal's view was of Foley (who had spent a good half minute in delay) and also the forwards who were in a huddle behind Foley and who were seemingly taking no interest in playing on.

Fozzy would say it was clear as day knowing how much pressure he is under to keep his job. He could have shown a bit of grace and empathy in acknowledging the controversy.

So... his teammates were clear in their understanding, but you're not? And Foley didn't say he wasn't clear - he just didn't hear the whistle

This is an excellent analysis. The key thing *is* the ref first language. “Jouez- nous” would be the French IS more command based in French so i can see why he said that however I agree that he should have planted the seed before that with foley and moanga on kicks. In other words deliver a consistent message. Great channel by the way.

Great analysis as always.

As a Wallabies supporter, I'm okay with this call as long as refs actually start enforce other time wasting instances the same way. How many times have we seen refs yelling at the 9 to "use it" while they fuck around with the ball for 10+ seconds before kicking it? Or props taking a knee before a lineout for the medical staff and chewing up 30 seconds there? Foley shouldn't have pissed around and its his fault 100%, but time wasting is almost never pinged in any other instance.

Absolute correct call from the ref. How many times must a ref ask nicely to kick before he must blow his whistle? You are quite right: the fact that their team mates all knew what was coming tells you that Foley was brought to book by a wise old ref, correctly.

The ref did warn him repeatedly though, so Foley is to blame.

Definitely the right call. He warned Foley constantly through the game to play quickly. He almost penalised him on 36 mins when he was time wasting during the sin bins. In the last incident Raynal even stopped the clock to warn him and Foley still chose to p**s about, pretending to wait for his forwards which was unnecessary. The most stupid thing is he didn't need to time waste. He could have kicked quickly to touch, they would have won the lineout and they could have mauled it and kicked it out. Just look at the reaction of the Aussie 3/4ers. They knew but Foley tried to be clever and he lost his team the game. As for Raynal's english that's a bit of a stretch. A ref doesn't stop the clock to tell a player to "we play" or "play now", if he doesn't want you to play now. Whether he said "we play now", or "let's go" doesn't make much difference. Crooked feeds are allowed because they don"t want hookers to hook basically, for safety reasons. I don't agree with that but there it is.

As a Scotsman it was a nice bit of justice for the 2015 World Cup lol

Great video, and great analysis. It was a harsh call, and if it was my team, I'd be upset. However, context is king as you say. The Aussies new exactly what they were doing. Having said that, I feel to blame Foley is unfair. We can clearly hear on the commentary, the ref's warnings, but did Foley? You can see the backline players behind him literally screaming, but if he couldn't hear that, how could he hear the ref? He seemed to be unsure of what to do, and his glances over to the huddle either means he was waiting for them, or they were telling him to wait. It was a great match, that the Aussies did deserve to win, but it was a really poor error in judgment, from the leadership group I feel. On a side note I feel Nic White should also be sanctioned for telling the ref that he cost them the championship. This rugby, not soccer, the refs word is final, harsh or not.

Mathieu Raynal is one of the best refs around, he is calm unlike most of the tragic rest which I really like. There is no performance or drama with his referring and he was absolutely right. As a South African it would have suited me to have Aus win but well done for having the balls to just calmly blow your whistle once you felt the piss was being taken. Great game!

I’ve learnt so much of your analysis thank you.

We hardly ever see it called because we hardly ever see teams use "football tactics" to win at any costs as Australia now seems to be doing; Mustache theatrics and this clear time wasting tactic, in my opinion, are not in the spirit of rugby union and the Australian players need to examine their level of sportsmanship.

Totally the right call. Jesus if he just kicked it into touch you can time waste on the walk to the lineout. So stupid by Australia wasted an amazing comeback. Foley was brilliant too apart from this in fairness to him.

Re the swain citing. In things like that, I would like to see bans as long as the injured party for the person that intentionally injures like that

Unless Foley had slept his way through the game up to that critical 78min mark, he would've understood Mr Raynal's instructions which his other team mates understood with no problem. The critical issue, is that this particular rule/law, has not been enforced before, even though the ruling is clearly there for all to read it. Even Nigel Owens has come out with a Tweet supporting the French Referee's decision based primarily on that fact, its in the Rules book. "A penalty kick must be taken without delay."

As an All blacks supporter I was furious when first I heard this call, I've watched it again and can honestly say it was the right call.. BUT what I can't wrap my head around is why did he decide to begin enforcing this rule in the 78th minute of a bledisloe cliff-hanger .. I'm struggling to explain this one to my Australian friends because it's not exactly a tactic that is exclusive to the Wallabies.

I think Fosters comments about the incident lack integrity. His team was beat and ended up winning because they got a gift from an idiot with a whistle

I’ve never seen it but I’ve also never seen Australian player do what they did. They stopped playing and ignored the ref who’s telling them they need to play

I just appreciate that you're wearing a French jersey while talking about this particular topic

The articles claim the Wallabies wasted 39 seconds of game time, but it took 7 seconds from the penalty to actually retrieve the ball from under the pile of bodies at the ruck, so immediately Australia only wasted 31-32 seconds, of that time, 18 seconds were spent by the referee explaining the reason for the penalty to the All Blacks players, or saying nothing. After calling time on again 9 seconds pass for the referee, but only 7 seconds of actual match time tick over (because of the delay with whoever runs the match clock). Bernard Foley had the ball for *7 seconds* of active game time, which is the same amount of time it took the All blacks to hand over the ball at the penalised ruck. Richie Mo'unga took 88 seconds to kick a penalty goal in the 71st minute, which was never picked up on by the referee for time wasting. You can see that on the extended highlights on the All Blacks KZfaq page. This isn't about the outcome, or what team deserved to win more. This is about an absurd call that turned the match on its head.

I think people are more surprised that he was pinged for that infringement than anything. Once you get passed what had happened.....the referee was right to ping foley. He had been warned multiple times and his team mates were screaming at him aswel. Unfortunate for him but you live and learn....move on and prepare for next weeks test.

Also someone smarter than me can you explain the rules of the maul try at the start, if the maul is out but the ball is still in play that means it's okay? Thanks in advance

I was a bit shocked at first but after watching again especially the Tiktok video that's fully transcribed it's clear that Matthieu Raynal made the right call.

"Play on, please" "We play." "We play!" *blows whistle* "Time off." "We play." "We play." "No, no." *unintelligible, seems to be a warning about giving a scrum to black* "We play now." *blows whistle* "Time on." ..... "10!" *blows whistle* *penalty to NZ* 48 seconds passes between the time Australia were awarded the penalty and when Foley runs up to kick. Foley saying time was off is completely ridiculous. Raynal says "we play" five times, blows his whistle twice and says "time on". It's a call that will be debated for years but you can't say Foley wasn't given multiple warnings about what was coming.

I've only just seen a clip of what happened. My tivo box finished recording before the end of the match, so I didn't know what had gone on until your review of the match. From what I've seen, it was a slam dunk decision. The players (should) know the rules. The referee isn't their dad. He's there to enforce the rules, not tell the players how to play within the rules.

Adding my two cents on Raynal's "We play" in french literally translates to "On joue". If it was said in French, the equivalent meaning would have been "Let's get on with it" or "we carry on" depending on whether this is a stoppage or ongoing action.

Totally agree Mark, a call like that deserves proper communication but being a one-eyed ABs fan of course I'm grateful we were the benefactors. Simply bizarre alright.

It was completely the correct call. I have reviewed this more than 10 times and he was told multiple times both in time and with time off. Foley was well aware and this was something that was built up to as the ref had called them on this multiple times during the game.

I hope this is the start of a focus on time wasting. All your comments about ‘use it’…also Slow to line outs, props who take the knee, scrums that take 2 minutes to set…too much wasted time. I don’t believe Foley when he said he thought time was off. If he thought that he wouldn’t have started the process to kick the ball.

great analysis. Just watched the spider cam footage. Raynal was fairly clear but it is such an unusual call it does seem an odd call. Reminds me of Pascal Gazer's odd call in that Wales v England six nations match.

Foley was happy to kick it quickly when the TMO was reviewing the forward pass

If you play with matches you get burned. Foley was time wasting and got pinged Even his own teammates were screaming at him to kick it. Raynal might not be perfect but on this he's right.

The biggest joke is that The Wallabies at one stage lead this game after being down 20 points and two men in the bin... ABs were average at best. Have the win if it means anything to you Foley and the Wobs made you look poor

Ref should blow the whistle to ▪️ STOP time and indicate clearly that time is Stopped. ▪️START time with similar indicators as above. (for instance when he starts the game) ▪️CONFIRM with BOTH captains that they are ready and he can RESTART the clock. (Refer starting the game) Confusion runes careers !!

The new skycam footage is pretty damning for Foley. Extremely clear, and he said 'Time on' clearly too.

For the record. I am Australian. How you feel about this argument depends on your support of either team. Mark. I am like you. I hate criticising Refs and their decisions in the heat of the match. To my Kiwi Friends, I will ask you this. Would you have been as upset as the Aussies are now if the time-wasting wasn't called? Personally - I believe that the players should be the only participants that have an influence on the match. Yes on occasions Referees make mistakes - I am a big believer that they always seem to balance out. As for a match. It seems like the Wallabies have improved and the All Blacks have lost their Best in the world status from 2 years ago. 3 Times the All Blacks had us beat and couldn't close it out. That never used to happen.

Totally agree that the context matters big time, that's exactly the reason it was pinged. By playing slowly, they were depriving the All Blacks the opportunity to win the game.

I'm more annoyed Bower tripped over his own feet and did a big flop giving the penalty away. Otherwise we wouldn't even be talking about all this.

I'm a wobs fan so take that into account. The laws state that "A penalty or free-kick must be taken without delay.", with regard to a penalty kick the laws state "The kicking team must indicate their intention to kick for goal without delay." I think that's apoint in Mr Reynal's favour. Mr Reynal is also pretty clear that he wants the wobs to hurry up and everyone knows you should play to the whistle. Another point in Mr Reynal's favour. Where I think the wobs and especially Foley can feel hard done by is that the penalty is blown at 78:25, Foley only gets the ball when Mr Reynal blows for time off at around 78:45, this is about 3 seconds after Nic White probably tells Mr Reynal what they want to do and asks where the mark is before putting the ball on the mark. It's pretty clear from the footage that Foley doesn't hear the ref say time on at 78:55 (seems as tho the game clock on Stan didn't actually get stopped? It's not on screen due to replays and whatnot so not sure), doesn't react to the whistle either and doesn't look at the ref when he says "10" (he does look at the ABs to see what they're doing). Foketi also isn't paying attention and only yells at Foley to do something about a second before the penalty gets turned over at 79:04 with Foley clearly about to kick the ball and it's clear from what's picked up on the mic that Foley thinks time is still off. So Foley had the ball in his hands for less than 20 seconds of game time, around 30 seconds in total, and got done for time wasting. Mr Reynal is technically correct to interpret 20 seconds as not "without delay" and was pretty clear that he wanted them to hurry but still a tough call IMO. Especially when you consider that because it's a penalty they could've delayed until time was up and the ABs still would have had a chance to get the ball back. I think the game would benefit from a couple of minor changes. Time should go off as soon as a penalty is called and not come back on until the ball is live again i.e. kicked, tapped or fed into the scrum. I think you should have a defined 'shot clock' to make a decision, and then defined periods to act, maybe 60 seconds for a shot at goal/pack a scrum, 30 seconds to kick for touch/tap and go. This would hopefully reduce teams using penalty kicks, lost contact lenses, untied shoelaces and a certain South African physio to wind down yellow cards and generally waste time and it would also set expectations for everyone, reducing any confusion. The laws define a set time to use the ball at the back of a ruck or maul (5 seconds) so why not penalties?

Still think as a neutral that the call was correct. Not just because of how (im)precise the specific warning was, (although I think it was clear enough) but because the ethos in Rugby should remain that the ref is in charge. Take the piss and ignore instruction if you want - but then don't get upset at the result, or just go and play soccer instead.

Put 30 seconds back on the clock like they do in football. Does the outcome change then? Fact of the matter is, the ref materially changed the result of the game in favor of kiwis.

It's not about the law or what the law is. It's about listening to the ref, and reacting to what he says, which Foley didn't.

Hi, I am French and first time on your channel. Thanks for your balanced speech. Before digging into facts, some preliminary observations : 1/ obviously Mr RAYNAL is not as fluent in english as some would expect espacially in tense situation 2/ Rugby players are professionnal and then situation awareness is expected to high espacially in critical situation. 3/ I have not seen the entire game but I have read the player #10 had already been warn thoughout the game because of play delaying. I will focus on decision making. a) MR RAYNAL He is obviously focused on time. As he whistled a penalty to Aus. (78:25), after a couple of seconds, he says twice "we play" (you are right, "we play", in french "on joue", is a gimmick wich means "let's play now" or "game is on"). Right after that, he called time off, said again "we play" then warned the player : "I turn on the time and you play now! " He waits for several seconds (I can here some kind of a "Hey!" but I'm not sure it's him) and finally whistled scrum to NZ (79:04). b) the player #10 On TV, at the end of the replay of the previous action, the player has the ball in hands and has already been called multiple times to play and time is back on (78:57). He turns several times his haed back to the team behind. Why? Right after the call for scrum, the goes wide and shows most of the team is packed and some are turned back to the game. My opinion on this event : In this ending time, it is relevant for the referee to make sure teams do not use strategies to let the clock go on by unfairly streching time needed to restart play. Mr RAYNAL gave at least two calls for kicking to no avail (level 1). He stopped the clock to warn again and give clear instructions. This is an escalation to level 2. He turned the clock back on, nothing happened and the player kept looking back. What do you expect? I think that player #10 was, in one hand, pushed to quick play and, in the other hand, witnessing most of the team unfocused on the game. He obviously tried to manage both. We all know what happened. WHAT DO WE LEARN? 1/ SITUATION AWARNESS : After prevouis delays, the referee is focused on Aussie time management as the game comes to the end. Players did not take this into account. 2/ END GAME MANAGMENT : As victory was in sight, Some Aussies lost focus on game and the few last actions to be undertaken to actually close it (penalty kick to line out, lineout play and kick agairn to lineout). 3/ PARADOXICAL INJUNCTION : the player decision making process was stretched between ref's calls and unfocused team. He was also not in situation to undertake management action. All team members must act so no player is in such a situation.

I think it was clear that the first penalty was wrong since the Aussie player wasn’t supporting his own weight. So then Mathieu goes and tries to compensate his error. But in his defense the other Aussie player yelling at Foley to kick the ball will give the ref a lot of support on his decision.

Perhaps one reason we havent seen it too often (once every 15 years!) Is that it really only becomes an issue in this exact circumstance. Also in similar scenarios, the team looking to let clock run out know will kick the ball out quickly and then walk up to the lineout at the same speed as a bunch of arthritix centenarians. My own theory is that Foley, after having had a great game, couldnt resist milking the moment .....

Very balanced two cents. It is very tough for Aussie, but I really like the emphasis on quick play, time wasting shithousery is part of of soccer, let's not see it in rugby.

Neutral here. Correct decision, he got ample warning. Lost in translation? I don't think so. Foley was looking to waste every possible second and Reynal called his bluff.

The argument for the refs english not being clear enough had merit until you said that Foley thought time was still off. That's just not true...becuase he does try to kick it just as the ref actually blows the penalty. So to me that sounds like he was trying to come up with an excuse after being caught out on wasting time. Because you could also argue that the words were clear enough and I get the feeling that he understood the ref just fine.

I think the "unclear wording" argument is stretching it a bit. Raynal might not have English as a first language, but he is a competent speaker. Foley _does_ have English as a first language (even if he is an Australian 😉 ), and he will have had many opportunities over his life and the course of his career to speak with people for whom French, Spanish, Italian, etc. are first languages. Therefore, he will be well aware of how certain English phrases might be spoken by, say, a Frenchman. Also, it is not just down to the words, but also the tone. "We play" wasn't spoken like Mark presented it in the video. Intonation matters. (There's a great scene in the movie _My Cousin Vinnie_ where the court reporter reads words verbatim from the transcript, "I did it", when in reality it was spoken as "I did it?"). So yes, I think the instruction was clear (given three times, in fact), and Foley would have been well able to understand it as intended. Perhaps we are seeing another bit of Wallaby play-acting (Nic White: "Oh, I am killed!", Bernard Foley: "Me stupido!")

It was a little harsh but then he was clearly wasting time

Maybe the ref was also thinking of how quickly Folley took the try conversion when the TMO was maybe probably drifting towards checking for a forward pass (which there probably had been!)

It was 100% the right call. After viewing uninterrupted Spider Cam Footage Ref was well within his right to do what he did. Foley blatantly ignores him. What I found off was there was absolutely no communication between Foley & his forwards who were all huddled in a pack for some reason instead of waiting for him to take the kick. I honestly think they thought they'd run the clock down if they just waited long enough. They only have themselves to blame.

everyone saying its the right call just didnt want aus to win. from a neutral pov it sucks to see that call. everyone and their mom takes time to kick for touch. honestly i was impartial but seeing such daylight robbery really made me worry for the game. because calls keep getting worse and worse.

As an aussie heart breaking but D'Arcy should've been a red lomax yellow maybe sort of agree with last decision but poor reffing altogether

I’m a Kiwi and I don’t agree with ref blowing it up when Foley was literally in motion of stepping forward to kick.

Its B.S I see it so much ,even ABs doing it ,Australia really robbed !

To me, the communication was crystal clear, Its not like it was the beginning of the game where calls could have been misinterpreted. Both teams would have had time to get feel of what the ref was trying to convey during most calls during the game. So fast forward to the decision in question. Foley was well aware of the refs instructions. There is no excuse why he (Foley) did what he did other than to waste time hoping that by the time he kicked it out it would be time over and that would be it.. The Wallabies put their fate in the hands of the referee and lost, instead of kicking the ball out as far as they could into touch and backing their line-out or their defense , they tried to milk the time and ultimately lost the match because of it.

You have a point with the language barrier, "we play! " in French would be understood as "let's play! " so not the best choice of words. I think this explains why many people are frustrated with French refs. They think the refs are unsure or hesitant with their decisions but it's just that they sometimes struggle with the language whereas in the top 14 they are extremely clear and directive.

Is the fact that the time was off important though? Allegedly the clock was still off on the board or something. (According to Rennie)

Not clear??? 78.25: Penalty. 78.50: Raynal - "Play on please". 78.55: Raynal - "We play". 78.56: Raynal blows time off. "Time off. 7 seconds elapses. "And we play now. Time on." Three seconds. 78.59: Raynal "Ten?" - Foley looks back. 79.04: Blows freekick as Foley decides he'd better kick it. 39 seconds had elapsed

The ref called it as Foley stept to kick. I would have accepted it if he had called before Foley went to kick.

Perhaps an out-loud "3, 2, 1" count down would help? ...or just don't be a div and kick the thing after being warned.

Nice touch wearing the France jersey. Agree that Raynal’s wording could have been clearer, but the Wallabies absolutely knew what they were supposed to do (at least what the ref wanted them to do). He wasn’t yelling at them for the good of his health. The ref says “time on” and blows the whistle. Use it. Also, Swain should have received a red card. I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets cited.