France’s all-time leading points scorer went 0 from 3 at Ernest-Wallon, handed the tee to Romain Ntamack, then told Canal+ the Top 14 changed its kicking clock without asking the men who kick. The referees’ boss rang him the next day.
“We are not really consulted, and that is a shame.”
Thomas Ramos has kicked more points for France than anyone who has ever played for them. On Sunday night he missed three conversions in a row, gave the tee away, and then said the people who wrote the Top 14’s new kicking clock never asked a kicker.
He was explicit that it was not an excuse. Does a 45-second clock ask more of a full-back than a fly-half? Say so in the comments, then read on.
Read also: the squads, grounds and fixtures for every Top 14 club.
He went 0 from 3, then handed Romain Ntamack the tee
“When you go nought from three, you have to know when to leave the tee alone and give it to Romain,” he told Canal+’s Sacha Valleau afterwards. Ntamack kicked four of the remaining five and Toulouse won 48-12.
In French: “Quand tu fais zéro sur trois, il faut savoir laisser le tee de côté, le donner à Romain.”
Then he said the thing that made the Canal+ clip travel.
“From my point of view, a minute for conversions was very good. It would be good if we could talk decisions like that through with the people who actually play… We are not really consulted, and that is a shame.”
In French: “De mon point de vue, une minute sur les transformations c’était très bien. Ce serait bien que sur des décisions comme ça on puisse échanger avec les acteurs… On n’est pas trop consultés, c’est dommage.” Thomas Ramos to Sacha Valleau, Canal+, Sunday 13 September.
He is the biggest name yet to say it out loud, about a clock he will not be kicking against in Paris on 13 November, because Test rugby still gives him 60 seconds.
What the Thomas Ramos 45-second row is about: the rule, and who agreed to it
It is the LNR’s rule, run as an experiment World Rugby signed off.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Time to kick | 45 seconds for conversions and penalties, down from 60 |
| Previous cut | 90 to 60 seconds in 2023 |
| Clock starts | Conversion: when the referee awards the try. Penalty: when the captain signals for posts |
| Also new | Eight replacements, ending the twelve-change experiment |
| Stated aim | To increase effective playing time |
| Applies to | Top 14 and Pro D2 |
Source: LNR rules as summarised by Stade Rochelais, 8 July 2026.
Mathieu Raynal, the former Test referee who now manages the Top 14 and Pro D2 officials, rang Ramos the day after the match, Minute Sports reported.
On consultation, his answer was that the change was approved unanimously in February, by the club managers, the referees and the players’ union.
On the rugby, his answer was that it helps French kickers abroad. Europe and Test rugby still allow 60 seconds. Drill at 45 all season and 60 feels generous.
If the Top 14 clock is a training aid for competitions that use a different clock, then the Top 14 is the competition being asked to absorb the misses.
The full-back problem, in metres
“Playing at full-back, if the try is scored at the opposite end of the pitch, you do not have much time left.”
In French: “Moi qui joue à l’arrière, si l’essai est à l’opposé, il ne te reste pas beaucoup de temps.”
It is the mechanism nobody in the LNR meeting was measuring.
Watch where a kicking full-back stands when his side scores. Toulouse’s opener on Sunday, on 16 minutes, was Kalvin Gourgues chasing an Ange Capuozzo grubber. Ramos, on an attacking phase, is either on the far edge of the shape or hanging in the backfield as the last man. On a wide try that is 40 to 60 metres from the posts. The clock starts the moment the referee’s arm goes up.
Now the arithmetic. A jog of 50 metres at the end of a phase is eight to ten seconds. Collecting the ball from the try-scorer or the ball boy, walking it back to the line of the touchdown, placing the tee and stepping back is another 15 to 20 if nothing goes wrong. That leaves roughly 15 seconds for the part a kicker actually practises: the look, the steps, the strike. Under 60 seconds the routine had a cushion. Under 45 it does not.
A fly-half who kicks is usually the man who threw the last pass. He is at the try, ball in hand, before the referee has finished signalling. His 45 seconds and Ramos’s 45 seconds are not the same 45 seconds.
All three of his attempts were close to the touchline, and those are hard on any clock. But Eurosport’s match report reached for the rule too, calling him “visiblement perturbé par la nouvelle règle des 45 secondes pour transformer”: visibly thrown by the new 45-second conversion rule. A neutral report, on the night, blamed the clock. The point is narrow. The rule taxes one type of kicker more than the other, and the LNR wrote it without checking.
Ninety seconds was absurd, and Raynal has a point
Sixty was a tolerable middle. The LNR’s stated reason for 45 is effective playing time, and every minute a kicker spends walking is a minute the paying crowd watches nothing. Raynal’s point about Europe is a real one too. A kicker drilled to 45 will never feel the 60-second clock in a Champions Cup quarter-final.
And Ramos’s own performance answers the welfare version of the objection. He missed three, recognised it, and handed the tee to a team-mate who was standing at the try. That is what the rule wants: the nearest competent kicker takes the kick. Toulouse have two. Most clubs have one, and he plays full-back or ten. Picking that man is its own argument, as Nick Mallett’s choice between Manie Libbok and Sacha at Springboks 10 shows.
Start the clock when the kicker has the ball
The first two rounds are too small a sample to say whether conversion rates have moved, and Rugbyscope said as much. What has moved is the politics. A 45-second experiment approved in a room in February now has a public dissenter who is France’s record points scorer, and the referees’ manager felt the need to phone him.
Going back to 60 is not the only fix available. Start the conversion clock when the kicker gets his hands on the ball, rather than when the try is awarded.
That is roughly how the penalty clock already works. It starts from the captain’s signal, when the decision is made and the ball is already at the mark.
Same 45 seconds, measured from the same place for every kicker, wherever he was standing when the try went down. A kicker’s routine is the asset, and a rule that shortens one man’s routine and not another’s is a rule about position, not time-wasting.
Your turn
Two positions. One: Ramos missed three touchline kicks, said so, and the clock is doing what it was built to do, keeping the game moving. Two: a rule that starts the clock 50 metres from where the full-back is standing was written by people who have never kicked one, and he is right to say so. Keep the 45 seconds, or start it from the ball?
Frequently asked
What did Thomas Ramos say about the 45-second rule? After missing three conversions in Toulouse’s 48-12 win over Bordeaux on 13 September 2026, he told Canal+ that “a minute for conversions was fine”, that players “are not really consulted” on rule changes, and that a full-back has little time left when a try is scored on the far side of the pitch. He said it was not an excuse and handed the tee to Romain Ntamack.
What is the Top 14’s 45-second rule? From the 2026-27 season, kickers in the Top 14 and Pro D2 have 45 seconds to take conversions and penalties, down from 60. The clock starts when the referee awards a try, or when the captain signals for posts. The LNR says the aim is more effective playing time. Test rugby and the Champions Cup keep 60 seconds.
Who is Mathieu Raynal? The former international referee who manages the Top 14 and Pro D2 match officials. He spoke to Ramos the day after the match and said the rule was approved unanimously in February by club managers, referees and the players’ union.
