All Blacks complete French whitewash but referee’s helping hand sparks controversy
Winger Rieko Ioane scored three tries while Damian McKenzie crossed twice as the All Blacks completed a series whitewash by beating France in Dunedin yesterday in a match that was overshadowed by yet another refereeing controversy.
The crucial moment came after 32 minutes with the scores tied at 14-14 when the hosts attacked from a scrum deep inside the French 22.
With the defence split, All Black scrum-half Aaron Smith went left and fed McKenzie to score – but replays showed the gap in the visitors’ defence was created by referee John Lacey accidentally impeding France scrumhalf Baptiste Serin as he went to tackle the try-scorer.
Lacey checked the replay but said he was happy he had not stopped Serin from making a tackle and the All Blacks took their 21-14 advantage into the halftime break.
The decision not to replay the scrum was criticised by many observers, including commentator Justin Marshall, the former All Black scrum-half, but the New Zealand head coach, Steve Hansen, backed the officials.
“I know the rule book reasonably well – I’ve read it for years,” Hansen said. “As a player I thought I was a better ref than a player, and there’s nowhere in the rule book that says a referee can cause obstruction.
“He’s got to stand somewhere and it’s not our fault that our guy [McKenzie] ran close to where he was standing.
“It’s happened to us a few times in the past. People are clutching at straws there – what do they want him to do; click his fingers and disappear or something?”
Hansen’s French counterpart, Jacques Brunel, had a rather different take on the matter.
“To me it seems quite clear and straightforward that if a player or referee should obstruct the play and it disadvantages one team or another it should be dealt with,” he said
“At half-time it was possible that the score could have been equal with the referee that was sort of in the way for that try … [but] in the second half the All Blacks sped up. We tried to keep up with the All Blacks but maybe we should have tried to maintain our own pace and keep up that way.”
The controversy – which followed issues in the first two Tests of the series, with France lock Paul Gabrillagues given a dubious yellow card in the first game and full-back Benjamin Fall sent off in the second – overshadowed another impressive second-half performance from the All Blacks.
France took an early lead when Serin crossed but Ben Smith responded immediately before Matt Todd added a second. Wesley Fofana got France’s second try of the game to level the scores before McKenzie’s controversial try gave the hosts a lead they would not relinquish.
The All Blacks were much more clinical in the second half and they cut loose after McKenzie’s second with Ioane scoring all three of his tries between the 53rd and 65th minutes.
“We were tight in the first half but in the second half the All Blacks increased the pace of the game and they scored a lot of tries,” Serin said.
“We tried to run the ball a lot as well but we exposed ourselves to the counter-attack and that’s something we need to work on.”
Hansen also admitted his side need to improve ahead of the Rugby Championship.
“We just need to get better right across the park,” he said. “But we are introducing new stuff that takes time.”