Rugby Referee Analysis: Mathieu Raynal | Wales vs England 6 Nations 2023

Another Weekend of 6 Nations where bad officiating ruins the game. England vs Wales was a tight contested game where both teams probably did not play their best, but it was a close game. It is sad that in such a close game, the match officials, again, played a massive role in directly impacting the result of the game. For instance, in this case there were 2 tries given to England, that clearly should not have been allowed. Yet both the ref and TMO messed up, such is the case every single weekend. Mathieu Raynal had a shocker of a game. He was very inconsistent at scrum time, and missed clear infringements that led to crucial tries. It was shocking. His TMO, Brian MacNeice, was just as bad and didn't offer him any help. I have no idea why we have a TMO, if they literally have now knowledge of the laws. How many games have been ruined by the incompetence of a TMO? It is literally the easiest job in rugby, yet they still continue to screw it up.

The Anthony Watson try was absurd, Ollie Lawrence gets tackled, he then does not play the ball, he instead continues to take an extra roll, yet the ref does not penalize him. Then play continues, where Alex Dombrandt gives a 2-3m forward pass to Watson, who scores the try. Yet, the ref does nothing, and the TMO does even less. He sees it on the replays with multiple angles. Yet does nothing.

Then the Kyle Sinckler try, how on earth does the ref say the on field decision is try, when at no point did that ball touch the ground. There is hands and bodies all over and under the ball, yet somehow the ref gets X-Ray vision and says it's a try. Yet in the game he misses stuff that happens directly in front of him. Then the TMO checks the try, sees multiple angles where the ball is clearly in the air, not touching the ground. Yet it was deemed not enough evidence. How on earth did they award that try?

Then the scrums, watch for yourself to see how inconsistent the ref was, he had no idea what he was doing there. We're watching international games where international refs, can't even get the basics right. This has to stop.

[pjn]

Shocking that you don't know how a forward pass works.

[biggiethebernese]

The first ‘extra roll’ - he wasn’t held in the tackle. You’re free to get up and do that.

[olliejames]

Imagine thinking that you have a better view of a try being scored than the fella is stood a metre away

[joeboonmusic]

I do admire one thing about this channel (and one thing only)... The ability to be so consistently and arrogantly incorrect; get criticised by most of the comments section only to make another video. That's some serious tenacity.

[justinavenell]

Amazing that you can see whether the ball is grounded better than a referee that’s literally on top of it…
Maybe world rugby should use you as the TMO for all games

[melbeeswax]

Was this because the TMO was Andrew Brace, or because England won?

I wondered which match of this round of games you would chose.

You've gone for a favourite target.

[Driver]

I noticed that extra roll in possession of the ball too, before the England try and I was surprised that it was let go. I didn’t see the forward pass. I thought that Sinckler did ground the ball for his try. I didn’t spot the other stuff. Well done for pointing it out.
Is this all that you do? Point out human errors? You should try it on politicians, journalists, police officers, lawyers, clergymen, in fact on anybody and everybody in society. You’re just so good at it here. It must take up a lot of your time.

[thomasmoore-polowy]

If 12 as you said “stumbles and falls” then he is not tackled and can get up. Also he’s not held so he can get up.

[harrisonduff]

Tell me you hate England without telling me you hate England 😂

[Diode]

If you understand projectile motion then you will know that the ball takes on the velocity of the person holding it. So even if you drop the ball running 20 km/h, the ball will travel 20km/h in the direction you the person ran. Same with passing the ball sideways, it will still travel forward at the same speed of the person who held.

[paulbennett]

I thought that the ref was the sole judge of fact and law on the pitch. I must have missed the bit where it says the referee must be perfect.

[eliaskotzakidis]

What about the forward pass which ended to the last Scotland try and a questionable win against England? Did you write about that? A Greek friend of Rugby.

[jksinorbit]

1st one and you already get it wrong ! England player NOT tackled, he stumbles and therefore can carry on as he likes.

[davidbeckett]

On Kyle Sinkler's try, the camera is on the touchline and the ref was right next to him, so why do you think the camera has the best view?

[clarke]

"Ollie Lawrence gets tackled, he then does not play the ball, he instead continues to take an extra roll, yet the ref does not penalize him"

You said yourself he stumbles and falls. You then say he is tackled. It cant be both. He was either tackled by an opponent or he wasn't.

Rightly or wrongly the referee has deemed this not to be a tackle. I agree with him. It's hard to watch that and come to the conclusion that Lawrence was held and brought to the ground.

And he cant be tackled when he is on the ground by an opponent who is on the ground.

"continues to take an extra roll" No he doesn't. He clearly gets up with the ball and spins and lunges forward. There's no roll there whilst on the ground.

Despite your criticism there is no refereeing issue here. I think he got it right. Lawrence has not been tackled... yes he is on the ground with the ball...however he has complied with the law by immediately getting up on his feet. He has been deemed as a player who has gone to the ground with the ball in open play as opposed to a player who has been tackled.

[chrisfield]

Personally, I like the referee to actually referee. If he is happy he has seen Sinkler ground the ball it's good he's brave enough to give it and not pass the buck by handing it on to the tmo. Just because it's not clear on the video doesn't mean the ref, standing right over it can't see a grounding.
We all know 40 years ago all these trys not given because there's no clear view would all have been given. Falling over the line with the ball was good enough.

[PB]

TASanalytics just told on himself. He doesn't even know how forward passes are interpreted in rugby, so it's best to avoid his content altogether.

[tommyparis]

You obviously dont know the rules of Rugby Game . 1:02 is NOT a forward pass

[steveogburn]

You posted this on Mon 27th Feb, meaning that you had two days to analyse the footage. The Referee had under 3 seconds to make a call, whilst still refereeing the game. Hindsight is always 20/20, but it's never available when you need it most.

[guillaumehammersley]

Another prime example of this creators poor understanding of rugby laws. Not that I'm complaining, I do enjoy a good chuckle after a fantastic weekend of rugby 👍🏻