Foley denies time-wasting after controversial defeat to All Blacks

Australia fly-half Bernard Foley said he had no intention of deliberately soaking up seconds on the clock against the All Blacks before being controversially penalised for time-wasting in the final minute of the Wallabies' defeat in Melbourne.

With Australia holding a three-point lead in Thursday's game, French referee Mathieu Raynal took the ball off Foley after he dithered while preparing to kick a penalty to touch.

The All Blacks were then awarded a five-metre scrum and Jordie Barrett scored a try after the siren to sink Australia 39-37, sealing the Bledisloe Cup for a 20th year in succession.

"There was a lot of confusion throughout the game," Foley told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper on Friday.

"I wasn't trying to slow it down, but 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 said the noise from the capacity crowd of 53,000 under the stadium's closed roof had not helped.

"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.

All Blacks coach Ian Foster, however, defended the Frenchman and said 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