French B team do the goal line stand......take on a bent ref

Sickening watching the Pom bad sports applauding France off the field after they couldn’t even accept their silver medals at the WC. France lost in the end and they struggled in the second half.

But this literally B team French side should have won the match. It took a string of poor kick clearances and a ref who gave every marginal call to England to ensure the game for the Poms

It was a mostly scrappy match but the French kids holding England out at half time was  awesome....every bit as good as the Boks at the WC.

Ever since the ELVs, reffing became a bigger problem. The IRB became more concerned about using the refs to police style, and that led to lots of strange gray areas protected by the term "interpretation". I remember the Los Pumas nearly beat the British Lions in 2005, but bad reffing which amounted to an additional 8 minutes or so of added time to give them chance after chance. Los Pumas just psychologically caved. It also reminds me of the England vs Greece game in soccer 2001/2002: Englanf needed the win to qualify. Ref gifting endless chances for free kicks, the Greeks simply couldn't touch anyone and thus couldn't alleviate pressure. After a dozen shots, Beckham finally scored the decisive goal. Heroes in the media. There's something about England in particular as far as the NH goes.

In the end, I'm glad I didn't watch this game. The French have had some very significant results stolen. None greater than a World Cup final. 

This guy just got into a rhythm of penalizing the French....most of them were marginal penalties, but he never saw the same thing for England. Take the knock on call from the kick that put France right on the Pom line.....the French flank Makalou never touched the ball....wasn’t even close. If that call wasn’t made France likely wins.

The quality of the rugby played in the game was lower than the quality of the rugby played in the WC Final.   I watched the game and there really was way too many insyances where both teams were poor in/    

So many marginal reffing calls:

Updated at 11.03am EST

2h ago10:53

82 min: Penalty! England have a kick for the posts. Was it Tolofua or Makalou? Anyway, as usual, it looked like it could have been the other way for Cowan-Dickie holding on.

We are waiting for the start of sudden death. We will have two 10-minute periods to play. I need to see that last penalty incident again. It sounded like maybe another ref would have said it was a fair turnover for France. Anyway, here we are. Sudden death. England will kick off.

50 min: Moefana is smashed very hard by Billy Vunipola. That was marginal - nearly high and nearly a no-arms tackle to boot. But he gets away with it. Then there is a kicking duel between Daly and Dulin, which ends with a knock-on by Raka, and England will have a scrum.

Watching this "Chasing the Sun"it does show how much closer that Welsh game was for the Boks.

If they were at full strength it would've been tougher.....that final was easier against the Poms.
France deserved to win today.....they played against 16 men(incl ref)

Just a few incidents the match reporter noted....there were many more....eg on the English kickoff in extra time, the player on the left touch looked ahead of the ball. It’s not that refs make mistakes....they are human. It’s the sense you get in some games that refs are looking for infringements from only one team. That was the case today.

Truth be said - the French would be foolish to accept this ref for any tests involving them/   

Apparently France were all offside at the first ko but got away with that.....

It used to amaze me that refs couldn't see McCaw sitting on his backside on the wrong side of the ruck, wrestling the ball off our scrumhalf, but could see into a ruck and penalis e Schalk with precision laser vision. Fascinating. I know Greyling's punch in 2012 was detrimental to the team's final result, but I really don't blame him either. 

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Nonsense AO - Greyling deserved the red card,    Going for a players head as he did is an automatic red card offence and he was as stupid in doing what he did as you are in writing BS on site.    McCaw was roguish in what he did - but players are not allowed to take the law into thir own hands,.  

It's one of my greatest laments: that your mother never taught you to read good. 

Auge: "I know Greyling's punch in 2012 was detrimental to the team's final result, but I really don't blame him either."

Lugnerin: "Nonsense AO - Greyling deserved the red card"

Bottom line? You are not as Clever as you like to think. 

I gave my reasons for my statement - and that is definitely beyond your comprehension abilities, 

I never disputed that he deserved a red card, I never disputed that it was punishable. I said that I can understand his frustration at the ref not picking up blatant cheating (even the Kiwi commentator empathized with Greyling). I never said players should take the law into their own hands. So, what exactly are you disagreeing with? You really are a laugh 'ol chap.

You excused Greyling for what he did - but even if McCaw was cheating he had a brain fart and deserved the red card.    

No he said Greyling was wrong and cost the team, but the reaction was understandable given the provocation.