Gregor Townsend slams ‘clear red card’ incident and claims other decisions ‘were wrong’ in France defeat

Gregor Townsend has slammed the officials for not issuing a red card to Peato Mauvaka during the Six Nations defeat to France.

The French hooker was shown a yellow card for an incident during the first half of the Super Saturday and Six Nations title decider but the Scotland boss believes that his actions warranted more.

This was just one of the decisions that Townsend took issue with as he once again criticised the match officials after a Scotland defeat. The 51-year-old stated there were “obviously key decisions” that were “wrong”.

He did not go as far as to say those decisions cost Scotland the match but did criticise the fact that Mauvaka did not get red-carded for his actions in the 20th minute.

After France were awarded a penalty, Mauvaka lashed out at Ben White, who was on the ground near him after the Scotland scrum-half was pushed over by Thomas Ramos.

Peato Mauvaka’s non-red card

Referee Matthew Carley reviewed the incident with his TMO Marius van der Westhuizen and duly issued a yellow card, sending the actions of Mauvaka to be reviewed by Foul Play Review Officer Ian Tempest.

Tempest did not deem the incident to reach the red card threshold as it was not a high degree of danger as there was no excessive force.

Many onlookers believed that the actions of Mauvaka warranted a red card and Townsend agreed in the post-match.

😡 Officials have a ‘shocker’ as Peato Mauvaka escapes red card for ‘flying headbutt’

“The decision not to raise it to red card was because there was no excessive force I’m not sure that’s really the criteria for a non-tackle incident,” he told reporters.

“It clearly wasn’t a tackle, it was after the whistle, so if there was head contact and that was intentional it shouldn’t have anything to do with the force.”

Mauvaka should’ve been sent off for this.

It’s a headbutt. #GuinnessM6N | #FRAvSCOpic.twitter.com/5KU9cs74Qs

— Tight Five Rugby (@TightFive_Rugby) March 15, 2025

That was not the only decision that the Scotland boss was not pleased with as he believed that there were other calls that went against his team in the Six Nations clash.

“There were obviously key decisions in that game that were wrong,” he added.

“You’re going to get some of them and others you won’t but you have got to make sure that you move on from them that go your way and make the most of that advantage. You just got to focus on what you can control.

“I feel sorry for Ben White here because he did nothing. First of all, he pushed the ground and pushes are nothing in rugby and then he got collided in the head.

“I don’t know how it wasn’t raised to a red card but as Rory [Darge] already mentioned whether that had anything do with the final result who knows.”

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France deserved to win

He was also critical of World Rugby’s process as it takes some decision-making away from the referee with the use of the FPRO and TMO.

“We’ve taken decision-making away from referees and that process is to speed up the game but you don’t want to miss incidents that state clearly in the book that should be red cards,” he said.

Still, he felt that France were the better team on the day and deserved to lift the title.

“France deserved to win they deserve to be champions,” he admitted.

“They’re a quality side and even though we played really well at times, France were the better team in the end.”

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