Leading referee Mathieu Raynal says World Rugby made an error in introducing the bunker for use at the World Cup.
“I think it was probably a mistake to put the bunker in at the last moment just before the World Cup without practising it and using it more,” Raynal told the UK Telegraph.
“That was a mistake. It was tough, too, because you send a situation to the bunker, they come back to you with a decision, and you cannot explain to the world why you made that decision.
“Before that, we could put words on the footage and could take people by the hands and they followed us until the final decision. That was interesting in terms of communication and explanation. Now, with the bunker, we cut this relationship with the people in front of their TVs or the people in the stands, which was difficult.”
Mathieu Raynal. (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)
The bunker was introduced to help speed up the game with players given yellow cards on the field with an assessment to see if they should be upgraded to reds. New Zealand captain Sam Cane suffered that fate during the final loss to South Africa.
Raynal also called for referees to be able to explain their decisions to media after a match.
The ref, who is well known in Australia for calling a scrum against Bernard Foley late in the Melbourne Bledisloe Cup match in 2022, said he had suggested referees be allowed to hold press conferences.
“I said, before the World Cup, when we discussed how we should communicate in front of the press if there had been a mistake that changed the game. My view on that is we have to keep it very simple – I go and sit on a chair, and explain, ‘OK, guys, I made a mistake. The game was so quick, I made a mistake of judgement. I’m not sorry about it, as my job is to referee and mistakes can happen, but I am sad about it – but it is what it is. What do you want me to do? I will not jump off the top of a building because I made a mistake on the field.’ It’s the life of the referees,” Raynal said.
“I hope we will keep the relationship between the coaches, referees, players and fans as simple as we can. It’s easier when you say to fans, ‘Yeah I made a mistake.’ What can we do after that?”
New Zealand coach Ian Foster spoke this week of his belief that World Cup final referee Wayne Barnes and his team had missed a late penalty that could have given the All Blacks the win in Paris, but Raynal said that TMO was not a fail safe to avoid all mistakes.
“It would be interesting to see a game without a TMO,” he said.
“After one mistake people would accept it, after two mistakes they’d start to complain and then after three mistakes they would ask for the TMO to be brought back. We cannot fight against mistakes or avoid refereeing mistakes. We just need to accept it, and we’ll lose less energy fighting for zero mistakes in a game.
“You can put a drone up, something in the ball, experts everywhere, 20 bunkers, but that won’t change the fact that at some moments you have to accept mistakes by referees. The game is very quick, we make decisions in a split-second.
“In rugby we forgive player mistakes, forgive coaching mistakes, but we never forgive refereeing mistakes. We accept that, but people need to understand that our sport is more important than victory or defeat.
“Rugby has to think about that, what they want exactly in the future, and what sort of sport we’re going to give to our children. We still have a sport that’s full of values – but it’s starting to change a little bit. We have to be careful in the next few years about where we go as a sport.”
Cec
Roar Rookie
Gotta call all of time wasting then, scrum resets, walking to the line out and restarts, drinks , feigning injury for the magic spray :laughing: etc. that call was so obscure, never called before in a tier 1 test
Jibba Jabba
Roar Guru
With a player continually time wastingt....
Jibba Jabba
Roar Guru
Yeah so true.. foleys timing...
Bliksem
Roar Rookie
Referees get blamed by coaches and fans for making calls that do not favour their team and for not making the calls that could favour their team. If we apply the same yardstick to coaches and players, we will soon realize that the referees are often the best performers on the field - getting it right >95% of the time. However, we expect perfection (the impossible) then the referees and therefore it will always be "rubbish, incoherent and inconsistent". A kicker than miss a crucial kick or knock a ball on gets much kinder treatment. Raynal is correct that the RWC is not the place to pilot something new.
Daffyd
Roar Rookie
DaveJ conning the ref into awarding one. AKA "Dark Arts" AKA Cheating
Daffyd
Roar Rookie
LP, Agree, if the ball is there to be played, play on! That's when I get most frustrated, when the scrum has been won, the ball is there and they get a penalty. And your comment on backwards scrum ball is so true.. retreating backs have to stop their momentum when going backwards and then go forwards, while the defense is already moving toward them and can hit full pace immediately. So hard to attack with bad ball - the scrum might not have won the ball, but it has spoilt the attackers ball. Good observation. RE: 5metres from locks (#8) feet... Let's open that up and be consistent with the lineout, that is 10m from middle of the scrum. (The 5m was a mistake made with the ELVs, in 2006 which went from offside at locks feet to 5m. They didn't think it through. They should have made it the same as the lineout.)
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
And so many result in kicks at goal way out from the tryline which was never under threat. Almost unique in sports to award points in this illogical and time-wasting fashion.
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
Exactly. Whereas the main object of the scrum has become to jag a penalty, or even better a penalty goal, by getting a prop to put his knee or elbow on the ground, or conning the ref into awarding one.
LuckyPhil
Roar Rookie
I would say one every 2-3 seconds when the ball is in play. So 20-30 per minute for 30-40 minutes......enough for there to be a few errors in there and the loser to have ammunition that the ref is biased or incompetant.
LuckyPhil
Roar Rookie
No, he should have written "The ref, who is well known for his time during the RWC when he was a TMO pushing the ref to call a yellow card when the ref kept saying one wasn't warranted" I think it was Ireland, but can't remember the opposition, just remember thinking how persistent he was and how much he wanted to get involved.
LuckyPhil
Roar Rookie
Making 17 errors a game when they have to make a decision every 2-3 seconds when the ball is in play is not as bad as you make out. It roughly works out that around 1-2% of decisions are wrong. Given teh complexities of the rules i think this is acceptable. The issue is that whenever they happen to your side, claims of bias get shouted and videos get made.
LuckyPhil
Roar Rookie
Agree with most of this. Free Kicks: 1/ All current technical scrum penalties: eg hand knee on the ground, popping a front rower, losing the bind etc.. It doesn't even need to be a free kick. Any of these gernerally are as a result of pressure, ie the offending team is losing the scrum. Great, let the team that is winning clear the ball and start playing. If the ref kept the defending backline 5m behind their locks feet, the attacking team would get front foot ball. A great attacking advantage. And before people draw comparisons with NRL, it isn't aimed at depowering the scrums, because if you have a weak scrum you will mostly be getting the ball while you backs are going backwards which is not ideal.
HKRed
Roar Rookie
Interesting that Raynal considers the Bunker to be the problem, when I think most would consider his generally rubbish, incoherent and inconsistent referring, to be a bigger concern.
Rolando
Roar Rookie
Maybe not ditch the bunker altogether but don’t allow them to change a yellow awarded by ref mid-game to a red. If it’s a red card offence, then it can be instituted at game’s end and referral to match review committee. However, it would be good if a bunker could overturn a mistaken yellow where each side has one review request available to the captain.
Rolando
Roar Rookie
Absolutely spot on D! In your reasons for free kicks “1/ “ I’d just play on to scrum ‘winner’ if the offending forwards lose the scrum. The laws have to go in the direction you suggest as I know too many people who’s main reason for turning off rugby are all the technical penalties which cannot be seen at the ground and often not in real time on tele. A few of them I can barely discern with slo-mo replays.
woodart
Roar Rookie
rugby has been televised for 60 yrs. successfully. when rugby was a SPORT, nobody worried too much about refs mistakes, but GAMBLING has changed all that. now that many millions are invested? , mistakes cant be allowed to influence payouts, so, t.m.o. and bunkers are supposed to eliminate officials mistakes.. not EVER going to happen. we are now all paying the price for that, with two hour games of debating, with the odd bit of rugby thrown in.
Jake Heke
Roar Rookie
This article is about a French referees opinion of the TMO. There isn't a single quote from either the NZR or the NZ media. The majority of people still going on about the WC final seem to be NH fans. I guess talking about it is the only way you guys can get involved.
FunBus
Roar Rookie
:laughing: :laughing: :laughing: The hilarious thing is that Kiwis will go through these epic, never-ending whines, and then have the nerve to talk about ‘whinging Poms.’
Daffyd
Roar Rookie
He did call time off ! He he then called time on. I totally agree 100% with the ref. Law 5a. “The referee is the sole judge of fact and of law during a match. But you dead right on all the other time wasting. But you'll find no argument from me from the water break coaching, walking to scrums and lineouts and general time wasting so the big fellas can get a breather. Don't forget the coaching by the ref, the explanations to so called professional players by the ref. Every Single Week - And Every other Stoppage. It's absurd for these players to be called professionals if they don't know the rules. But in this case, Foley should have known better. Foley's actions were insulting and disrespectful and rugby supporters should expect better from players.
Cec
Roar Rookie
Is that really how you want to see a test match decided, with a refs whistle on an obscure ruling. :shocked: