Nic White gets revenge on Mathieu Raynal in bizarre scenes
Probably the most controversial decision in all of rugby in 2022 was the Wallabies being punished for time wasting by Mathieu Raynal in the final seconds of a Bledisloe Cup Test against the All Blacks, which ultimately gave the All Blacks a scrum five metres out and the win.
Even though half a year has passed since then, it is clearly still a painful subject in Australia, so much so that the scrum-half was given the chance to exact revenge on the Frenchman recently.
Moments after the final whistle was blown in Melbourne, the No9 could be heard shouting “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.”
Returning to Melbourne recently during the tennis’ Australian Open, the Brumbies star was joined by Wallabies teammate Ned Hanigan on Stan Sport, where they were given the chance to let up some pent up anger by whacking tennis balls against a target. That target just happened to be Raynal’s face, which was bouncing around a screen. Very strange.
Take a look:
Nic White and Ned Hanigan targeting Mathieu Raynal at the Aussie Open.
Stan deleted the clip. pic.twitter.com/HpAl5ZPr0T
— Jared Wright (@jaredwright17) January 28, 2023
As controversial as the decision was, 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.”
