KEY POINTS:
Relationship counsellors say that all wounds heal with time ... but what would they know about the pain dished out to sports fans by refereeing injustices?
New Zealanders have made peace with the Germans (two world wars), kissed and made up with the French (a vile terrorist deed) and mended fences with the Aussies (theft of John Clarke). But by God, we'll never forget that poor Bob Deans was robbed back in 1905.
The flow of death threats has dried up and life, it seems, has moved on, but the deeds of Wayne Barnes - and Paul Marks, who last week whistled the Hurricanes to an unfortunate draw - will take their place in the bitterest depths of our collective memory. But Kiwi rugby fans aren't the only ones aggrieved; here's a precis of the Hall of Infamy for Refereeing Ineptitude: Welcome aboard messrs Barnes and Marks!
TWICE MORE AND YOU'RE OFF!
English referee Graham Poll was rightly considered his nation's best chance of representation in the 2006 World Cup final. But before David Beckham's men had preened and sulked their way to a quarter-final exit on penalties, Poll had already departed the tournament in shame.
As Australia and Croatia squabbled to the end of an ill-tempered group match, Poll showed Croatian defender Josip Simunic his second yellow card of the game. With two bookings to his name, the rules of football demanded that Simunic be sent off. The rules of Refereeing Injustice decreed otherwise.
Poll didn't wave the red card until a few minutes later when Simunic, not savvy enough to keep his head down, earned his third yellow of the night.
THE WORLD'S STRONGEST JAW
The Seoul Olympics of 1988 marked South Korea's economic and social progress. But, as with all host nations, the pressure was on for medals to celebrate the occasion.
Peering out from his blackened, bruised eyes and perhaps still a little concussed from the standing eight count he received in the second round, Park Si Hun - like all those watching the 70kg final - must have thought he'd heard the result wrong.
The 19-year-old American Roy Jones had pummelled the South Korean, landing an impressive 86 punches with only 32 hits lamely flailed back. The crowd knew who the winner was, but three of the five judges felt differently, handing the gold medal to the hometown kid.
Those three judges were later banned for two years and Jones was voted the Outstanding Boxer of the 1988 Olympic Games.
HOLLYWOOD AND THE SEVENTH-TACKLE GIFT
Critics of league often point to the predictability of the six-tackle turnover as the code's major drawback - they reckon without Greg "Hollywood" Hartley.
His dulcet tones illuminated the Sydney-based competition for radio listeners throughout the 1980s, but the ex-referee would always be more loved by Manly than the Eels. As the referee of a combustible 1978 semifinal between the two sides, Hartley dozed off on his tackle count in the dying stages.
Manly scored the winning try on the seventh tackle to steal a place in the grand final. With Refereeing Injustice on their side, the Sea Eagles won the final.
THE SOVIETS' THREE SECONDS
Going into the basketball final at the 1972 Munich Olympics against the USSR, the US players were justifiably confident of claiming a Cold War morale booster for mom and pop back home. After all, the Yanks invented the game and had won every Olympic match they had ever played.
It was a tough final though, so the Americans were relieved to have preserved their proud record by the slenderest of margins - the scoreboard reading 50-49 as the full-time hooter sounded.
Enter Renato William Jones, the head of FIBA, who stormed on court to interrupt the Yankee capitalist celebrations and declare that the clock was busted and the socialist comrades were entitled to three seconds of play. The Soviets threw the ball in. They shot; they scored. 51-50.
A tad petulant, the Americans skipped the medal ceremony. To this day their silvers sit, unclaimed, in a Swiss bank vault. US team captain, Kenny Davis, stipulated in his will that family members should never claim his medal.
THE JEROME BETTIS RULE
With the scores level in a Thanksgiving Day NFL match between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Detroit Lions, Jerome Bettis correctly called tails in the coin toss deciding which team would kick off for extra time and which would receive the ball.
Whoever wins the extra-time coin toss invariably elects to receive the ball, giving themselves the first chance to score.
The referee misheard Bettis' correct call as the coin arched through the air, insisting that Bettis had called "heads" and awarding first possession to Detroit. The Lions played their part in the injustice by scoring the winning points before Pittsburgh could touch the ball.
The NFL later brought in the "Jerome Bettis Rule" for coin tosses: the call of heads or tails must be made before the coin is tossed.
