Exclusive: Wallabies' Foley on controversial time-wasting call

Wallabies first-five Bernard Foley has spoken for the first time to New Zealand media after his controversial time-wasting penalty at the end of last night's wild Bledisloe Cup Test, saying he believes the All Blacks influenced the call.

Speaking exclusively to 1News this morning following the 39-37 defeat in Melbourne, Foley said while he agreed with Mathieu Raynal's view that the Wallabies had been "taking their time" with penalties throughout the game, he was confused by the French ref's decision in the final moments.

"My understanding was that the referee said time was off and it was going to be called back on when the kick happened," Foley told 1News.

Foley said with the 55,000-strong Marvel Stadium crowd at full volume, he couldn't hear his teammates yelling at him to hurry up the play and was instead focused on his "normal processes" in the moment.

One thing he did hear though was the All Blacks, saying he believes they may have "influenced" Raynal's call.

"They were casting a big shadow," Foley said.

"They're in their rights to do that ... but I think the disappointing thing is we're talking about a referee call after 80 minutes of a great game of rugby.

"Both teams played their hearts out."

Foley, who otherwise had a superb match for the Wallabies in his first Test since 2019 for Australia, added he also heard Ian Foster's comments about the moment after the match too with the All Blacks coach believing the call was "clear cut".

"I think if the shoe was on the other foot ... I think there was a lack of empathy coming from him," he said.

Former Wallaby-turned-commentator Morgan Turinui also had questions about the decision, saying there was, "a real disappointment and almost bewilderment around the decision itself when you look at the context of the game".

"You have to tip your hat to the All Blacks - when that opportunity was presented to them with a scrum 5m out from the line in front of the post to try win the game, they went out and did it that shows how good the ABs are," Turinui told 1News.

"We knew they were going to be good, they played so well, but obviously from a Wallabies lens, the Wallabies were probably denied the opportunity they earned to close out the game."

Turinui, who was commentating the contest for Stan Sports, said rather than the All Blacks being handed a free opportunity to steal the match, they should've been made to work for it from the lineout that would've come from Foley's penalty kick into touch.

"I just felt like that imbalance around that decision, in the context of the game, completely outweighed all the things we've ever seen in the game."

Turinui added a win for the Wallabies last night would've been better for the Bledisloe series as well.

"If the Wallabies had won last night, it’s a great week for Bledisloe," he said.

"You probably assume that you go to Auckland as a Wallabies team and you probably get beaten over there because it’s a fine NZ team who don’t lose at Eden Park.

"But it’ll be interesting now that New Zealand can win the Rugby Championship of course, does this energise [Australia] or does it take the wind out of their sails?"

Tune in to 1News at 6pm tonight for Kimberlee Downs' full interview with Foley.