A slight disappointment, a lot of crestfallen looks, and a lost point. This is how the Blues ended their evening, Thursday, at the Pierre Mauroy stadium, despite the victory against Uruguay (27-12) for their second match of the 2023 Rugby World Cup. Because of their fairly unconvincing, and especially for letting the offensive bonus point slip away.
The young Louis Bielle-Biarrey had however given his teammates hope of snatching this additional point by scoring his first try for his first selection (72nd) at only 20 years and 87 days old. And despite conceding 15 penalties throughout the match, the Blues even believed they had finally accomplished the mission for good. Thanks to a recovery from Sekou Macalou against the ruck. Two or three kicks later, the third row recovered to sprint and flatten at least 60 meters further (78th).
“Instead of finishing his counter-ruck well, he stupidly kicks the ball”
This was without counting the video, and the cancellation of the try, by Ben O’Keeffe, the match referee. Without us really understanding why at the time, the rules of rugby cough cough. Should he take the ball with his hand? Was he offside? After obtaining information from an expert close to us, here is his response:
“Macalou comes against the ruck, he must pass the ball with his feet to advance the advantage line and the ball ends up in the French camp. AND ONLY then could the French play it. Instead of finishing his counter-ruck well, he stupidly kicks the ball without passing it, and it is therefore considered to be tailgating in a ruck, and it is a fault,” he writes to us.
The person concerned also admitted to having wanted to play tricks: “I tried it, I told myself that the referee might not see it. But that’s normal “. Enough to annoy our connoisseur: “If Macalou is not a donkey and advances 40 centimeters, we score in this sequence”.
But the Blues did not score, and the offensive bonus disappeared. And afterwards, no one returned to this episode at a press conference. The match had already been played before anyway. “If we score, especially in the first half, the match is completely different. Now we won, we didn’t lack character. We knew how to hold on when we were in difficulty because we could have faltered,” preferred Maxime Lucu, scrum half of the Blues. Let’s hope that this point does not cost much when it comes time to do the accounts at the end of the group matches.