Wallabies first-five Bernard Foley denies he deliberately soaked up seconds on the clock against the All Blacks, before he was controversially penalised for time-wasting in Bledisloe Cup defeat at Melbourne.
With Australia holding a three-point lead, referee Mathieu Raynal took the ball off Foley, after he dithered, while preparing to kick to touch from the Wallabies 22.
The All Blacks were awarded a five-metre scrum and Jordie Barrett scored a try after the siren to sink Australia 39-37, sealing the trans-Tasman trophy for a 20th straight year.
"There was a lot of confusion throughout the game," Foley told the Sydney Morning Herald. "I wasn't trying to slow it down.
"I was just trying to get really clear and concise about what we were trying to do at that next lineout."
Raynal twice urged Foley to "play" and stopped the clock to issue another warning, before restarting it after a few seconds. He blew his whistle to award the scrum to New Zealand, just as Foley started his kicking motion.
Foley says the noise from the capacity crowd of 53,000 under the stadium's closed roof did not help.
"At the end, it was very loud in the stadium, but there was no sense there was going to be a call like that," he added.
"In my dealings with [Raynal], he asked to hurry up, but had turned the clock off. He never told me he turned it back on or there would be other repercussions."
Raynal's intervention shocked the rugby world and was roundly criticised by pundits, given that players get away with worse every week in elite rugby.
All Blacks coach Ian Foster has defended the Frenchman, insisting Foley was in the wrong for ignoring his warnings.
Foley said Foster need not have weighed in.
"If you get away with one, you probably would have a 'no comment'," said Foley. "But for him to speak about it in that regard was a bit disappointing."
The result was a bitter end for both Australia and Foley, who had a perfect night off the kicking tee and was praised for a "sensational" return by coach Dave Rennie in his first test since the 2019 World Cup.
Australia head to New Zealand next week to take on the All Blacks at Auckland in their final match of the Rugby Championship.
No team has beaten the hosts at Eden Park since France in 1994. Australia's last win at the Auckland fortress was in 1986.
While the Bledisloe Cup is out of reach, Foley says the chance to win at Eden Park was "a massive carrot" for Australia.
"It's also a chance to build on what we laid down yesterday. The guys will recover... and then we'll rip into the preparation."
Reuters
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