{"id":948725,"date":"2026-11-01T12:38:13","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T12:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/948725\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T12:38:13","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T12:38:13","slug":"rugby-league-world-cup-2026-france-coach-fumes-in-press-conference-at-refereeing-controversy-escort-penalty-reaction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/948725\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby League World Cup 2026: France coach fumes in press conference at refereeing controversy, escort penalty, reaction"},"content":{"rendered":"

France national coach Laurent Frayssinous has been left devastated after his side\u2019s heartbreaking golden-point loss to Lebanon<\/a> in their final World Cup match, with a controversial escort penalty proving decisive in the dramatic finish.<\/p>\n

Watch the biggest Aussie sports & the best from overseas LIVE on Kayo Sports | Get Kayo now ><\/a><\/p>\n

With the scores locked in extra time, French playmaker Cesar Rouge thought he had won the match for his nation with a field goal in front of the posts, but The Bunker quickly denied it after viewing the footage.<\/p>\n

The result left Frayssinous visibly emotional, with the French coach questioning whether the outcome would have been different if the match had been played under Super League rules rather than NRL rules.<\/p>\n

The entire squad – bar Latrell Siegwalt, who didn\u2019t play – are currently playing over in the Super League competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of highs and lows in there emotionally. What can I say? What do you want me to say? You want me to say if we play that game with the Super League rules, we win the game?\u201d he declared.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what you want me to say? Or if you played the NRL game and our boys don\u2019t get to use that rule? <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to take away what my boys have done tonight. They made French Rugby League very proud and I\u2019m proud of them. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe discussed how embarrassed we were for the first two games and tonight they responded against NRL players, so I\u2019m pretty proud (and) really disappointed not to win the game, especially with (it being) Barn Garcia\u2019s last game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pretty chaotic, and I was smiling 20 minutes ago and now I\u2019m nearly crying.\u201d<\/p>\n

BOTH TEAMS THOUGHT THEY HAD WON! | 00:49<\/p>\n

Frayssionus went on to explain the difficulties his players faced adapting to the different rules and interpretations, insisting a few weeks of preparation wasn\u2019t enough to properly understand the changes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a different rule in the Super League. You\u2019re allowed to do that in Super League. It\u2019s as simple as that,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to train with our rules to understand a bit more and even if we had during the tournament some referees coming in and we shared with them the ruck speed and everything was perfect.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one way you talk about it and one way you practice it. But practice it for four or two weeks and a half is not enough. It\u2019s as simple as that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luai builds momentum with ‘monster’ shot | 00:26<\/p>\n

Although he displayed his frustration, he stated the international game and Super League should both adapt the NRL rules.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like NRL rules and the way the game is played. That\u2019s what I like. What I don\u2019t like is my boys playing in Super League and when you play an international game it\u2019s also different,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s two rules that aren\u2019t the same. I\u2019m not going to say it because we lost but we didn\u2019t play the game to be qualified for the semi-final as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy with the attitude and the way my boys responded in the last two games.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"France national coach Laurent Frayssinous has been left devastated after his side\u2019s heartbreaking golden-point loss to Lebanon in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":948726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-948725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=948725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/948726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=948725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=948725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=948725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}