Brendan Lee

Roar Rookie

Joined September 2022

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With an inconsistent referee, you don’t get to choose when you are advantaged or disadvantaged by this. Both the Wallabies and All Blacks had to contend with this for more than 80 minutes. Inconsistent or not I don’t think referees should be refereeing according to the “feel” of a game, they aren’t conducting an orchestra or DJing in a club. What “feeling” does Rennie mean? The sentiment of the crowd? or Dave’s feeling that his team should be allowed to win? Foster’s comment that it was clear cut makes more sense: it was the imposition of an actual rule and Foley’s teammates can be seen reacting to the referee’s actions, so clearly on the field there was understanding of the ref’s directives, unfortunately, it would seem not on the part of Foley.
The great furore that followed of “when have you seen this ruling made?” has nothing to do with it. The coaching staff need to ensure their players know the rules, all the rules, and they need to ensure they know what the ref is like and they need to ensure their players understand that the referee is the sole adjudicator, that’s pretty basic stuff, isn’t it? Raynal has a reputation for controversial actions. It was the player’s decision or indecisiveness that led the ref to intervene and as Foster and others have said this is about game management. Foley is the 10, so supposedly a key strategist, and supposedly completely focused on winning but the ref must ensure the players do this within the laws and the spirit of the game. From the refs point of view the team who at that time had the scoreboard advantage has been awarded a free kick with time almost up. In effect, Foley has 2 decisions to make (technically I think he can kick it from a tee, a drop kick or call a scrum) but realistically he can kick it and leave it in play (very unlikely), or kick it into touch, so his team can defend the line out and then force a mistake. With the latter, it may still have swung the ABs’ way and they still could have scored and won.
So, simple enough, any hesitancy and refusal to follow the ref’s direction can only be one of few things, perhaps a brain freeze or more likely gamesmanship i.e time-wasting. To the ref, it would appear that the 10 is trying to manipulate the game at a crucial juncture and is flagrantly refusing to follow his directives. . The ref would be pretty certain that the 10 can hear him because he is close enough and can see his teammates are yelling at the 10 to take the kick, so should the Ref ignore what appears to be a flagrant refusal to follow the ref’s instructions, which is an act that is contrary to the principles of the game? I think not, if anything that is the “feel” that he should fundamentally be enforcing.
Moreover, at the time, the Wallabies were awarded the free kick they hadn’t won or lost, nor had they won or lost when the AB’ were awarded a scrum, but they led on the scoreboard. They lost their lead and the game when they failed to defend their line against the successful All-Black attack which resulted in a legitimate try, and which was, bar the successful conversion the final act of the game. So where is the controversy?

'Clear cut call', 'They've got to be better': Ruthless All Blacks back ref as Foley felt he 'let team down'

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Rugby

2022