‘That cost us the Rugby Championship!’- New post-match footage of Nic White slamming Raynal
An altercation between referee Mathieu Raynal and Australia’s stand-in captain Nic White after the final whistle of the Bledisloe Cup on Thursday has emerged online.
The two went to shake each other’s hand post match, where the Frenchman apologised to White for what might prove to be his landmark decision to give the All Blacks a scrum five metres from the Wallabies’ line with just a minute remaining due to Bernard Foley wasting time with a penalty kick to touch. The All Blacks scored a few phases later, which gave them the win, and White, who had replaced James Slipper as captain during the match, clearly was not happy.
The scrum-half shouted “That just cost us the Rugby Championship!” before Raynal went on to explain his decision, saying “that’s not fair what you did at the end, you just ran the time and if you think that I’m not capable of giving a scrum, you made a mistake.”
This was one of the most controversial calls in recent Test history, but there are certainly plenty of people who have sided with Raynal as he had warned Foley more than once before blowing his whistle.
Take a look at their conversation after the match:
The result means the Wallabies’ hopes of winning the Rugby Championship are more or less over this year, unless there are some very bizarre results next week when they face the All Blacks again at Eden Park and South Africa host Argentina in Durban. However, the All Blacks and Springboks are level on 14 points, so either side can win going into the final round.
All Blacks head coach Ian Foster was obviously happy with Raynal’s decision after the match, and backed him up.
“Should you actually listen to a referee on the field when he’s asking you to do something?,” the coach said.
“The ref was very clear with his instructions, and the game has to give authority to the referee.
“If he’s asking players to do something to speed things up, it’s our job to respond to it.
“The game is run by the referee. He said time off, he warned them, he said time on and then he asked them twice to play it. So I don’t actually really see the issue with it.”
