This provision he was afraid to return to France

Paul Roget, Media 365: Posted on Tuesday, March 07, 2023 at 12:44pm.

The controversial and highly criticized referee in the 2011 World Cup Final which the Blues lost to the New Zealanders (7-8), Craig Joubert feared returning to France.

French rugby hasn’t always caught on with this episode. On October 23, 2011, the Blues miraculously reached the World Cup Final, losing a short header to the All Blacks at Eden Park in Auckland (7-8). And Craig Joubert’s refereeing was particularly criticized, in particular because South Africa did not issue a penalty to the New Zealanders when the Tricolors developed in their camp after the break. Having become the man to be defeated in France, he fearlessly returned there, last November, on the occasion of the Autumn Tour match won by France XV against the Springboks in Marseille (30-26).

“Craig has been dreading his appearance in France since that final. And he’s still an injured man, because he knows he wasn’t very good that day. He knows he was affected by an environment that he struggled to control and until today is infected, an explanation of RMC Joël Jutge, the former French referee and today responsible for match officials in World Rugby. He knows he did badly, he would have liked to have been better, and he wasn’t, and that the title was decided based on some decisions. “And this return to France finally went off without a hitch.” People I knew from Marseille. It gave him confidence and it was good to see that,” Jutge continues.

Dusautoir: “The Rising Fury”

But things might not have gone so well if he had met the players from the France XV who participated in this final… In 2021, ten years later, Thierry Dusutter was still embittered. “The frustration comes from the fact that we put them under pressure, but it hasn’t changed. I haven’t seen the solution. The penalties are closer, I know we provoked them, but we never judged them. There, during the discussion, it goes back to the frustration of the last 10 minutes. When we realized we could go there as much as we wanted, he didn’t blow a whistle. Hit, hit, hit and you have the rage that soarshad confessed to the former captain of the team.