[imagesource: Cameron Spencer / Getty Images]

The Springboks are still in with a shot of winning the Rugby Championship after a bonus point win on Saturday night.

We would have had a greater chance of winning the title had the Wallabies beaten the All Blacks in their Thursday clash.

However, a very controversial call by French referee Mathieu Raynal helped the All Blacks grab a late winner and left much of the rugby world scratching their heads in bewilderment.

Wallaby flyhalf Bernard Foley was seconds from clearing into touch when Raynal pinged him for time wasting, leading to one of test rugby’s most controversial endings.

In the wake of the call, Ozzie commentators and fans raged and it was tough not to sympathise. I think we should be self-aware enough to know that if the Springboks lost in a similar fashion we would suffer a collective meltdown.

However, in the days that have followed various video clips have shown that Raynal was quite clear in telling Foley to get on with things.

In particular, this leaked sky cam footage outlines step-by-step the communication between referee and player:

Yep, he warned him. pic.twitter.com/EqE2Irx7hW https://t.co/IRWfBgnaMg

— Ben Coles (@bencoles_) September 18, 2022

That’s a very long pause between Raynal saying ’10’ and imploring Foley to kick and the whistle being blown. Foley’s own teammate, Lalakai Foketi, can be seen on one angle screaming for him to hurry with the kick.

Then again, Foley was in the act of kicking when Raynal intervened.

We sometimes forget that two things can be true at the same time.

Ozzies can feel unjustly penalised for something that very often flies under the radar, and the All Blacks (and those who love watching the Ozzies lose) can rightly say that Foley was guilty of time-wasting.

In the post-match press conference, Foley outlined what he had and had not heard. This via RugbyPass:

“There was a bit of confusion just in terms of personnel on the field for us, just trying to get a call, it was pretty loud in the stadium last night,” Foley said.

“My conversation with him was that he told me to hurry up but that time was off. He didn’t really mention that there was going to be any further action then starting the clock.”

After the match, everybody’s famous Ozzie scrumhalf was not happy with the ref and let him know:

Raynal didn’t run away from his decision, offered an apology (which he didn’t need to do).

Fair play. pic.twitter.com/jqF6D0lQfo

— Jared Wright (@jaredwright17) September 18, 2022

I think the most amazing thing here is how Nic White managed to stay on his feet after Raynal touched his shoulder and chest 10 seconds in.

He’s gone down for less.

Raynal deserves credit for fronting up to White and explaining the decision. Ozzies have pounced on the fact that he tells White, “I’m warning him, I say ‘if you don’t play immediately, I will give a scrum’”.

In that video up top, we can hear the word ‘scrum’ is never mentioned.

Whenever there’s a controversial call, retired ref Nigel Owens is called upon to give his views. He sides with Raynal:

As so many of you have been in touch to ask. Clear communication and warning to the player to get on with it. A fair and strong refereeing call my Raynal I feel. Learning here is not for the referee, but the players to get on with it when ref asks. pic.twitter.com/oZQASsO93f

— Nigel Owens MBE (@Nigelrefowens) September 17, 2022

Writing for The Roar, Sinclair Whitbourne has laid out in great detail why the Ozzies are wrong to moan about the call.

It’s worth reading in full but here is a particularly important passage:

The applicable law is Law 9.7(d), which comes under the Heading of ‘Foul Play’ and the specific subheading is ‘Unfair Play’. The relevant law is deceptively simple stating “A player must not waste time”.

…The other relevant Law is Law 20.5 which states that a penalty or free kick ‘must be taken without delay’.

I cannot see that the referee got the law wrong. The argument, so far as much of the comment merits that description, seems to be that it just isn’t applied the way referee did here. I have some sympathy for this claim, in so far as a lot of delay is tolerated in the game. But those making the argument need to concede that the referee did not apply the wrong law, or get the law wrong in some other way.

Again, Raynal repeatedly told Foley to ‘play on’, said ‘now we play’, and called out his number in an effort to speed things along.

This is also important:

The referee could have been more clear about his intentions. Ideally, he would have said “If you do not use the ball in the next 5 seconds, I will sanction for time wasting”. However, the referee is not required by the laws to communicate his intentions at all, only to communicate his decisions.

So, what we are talking about is managing the flow of the game, not whether the referee got it right or not.

I am just immensely glad that we were not directly involved in all of this.

Rassie Erasmus would have banged out a solid two-hour video had we suffered at the hands of Raynal.

So, did the Frenchman display nerves of steel otherwise unseen on a rugby field this weekend?

I reckon he ties with Ben McCarthy, the North Otago winger who slotted a conversion from the sideline despite a rather unusual distraction:

Clutch.#notvhor@BunningsNPC pic.twitter.com/QOvTARgGKi

— Mike Thorpe (@MikeThorpeNZ) September 17, 2022

[sources:rugbypass&roar]