Encore for Raynal

French referee Mathieu Raynal – the man at the centre of the Bledisloe Cup time-wasting furore two months ago – has been whistled up as a late replacement to officiate the All Blacks’ test with England on Sunday (NZ time). Australian Nic Berry was scheduled to ref the test at Twickenham but World Rugby said yesterday he has headed home for personal reasons. That has seen an 11th hour call-up for Raynal, who had been down to do the Romania v Samoa test in Bucharest. In the wake of the fiasco in Melbourne in September, where Raynal controversially pulled up Wallabies first fiveeighth Bernard Foley for taking too long with a penalty, which then saw the All Blacks score the match-winning try from the resulting scrum, the 41-year-old had seemingly dropped down World Rugby’s pecking order.