Gregor Paul: Ref rules and crowd cheers (or not)

Referee Nigel Owens of Wales shows the yellow card to All Black Dane Coles. Photo / Getty Images

The result at Twickenham had no bearing on the World Cup but a couple of events are of serious concern ahead of next year's tournament.

This business of referees being swayed by the crowd is patently a worry. Nigel Owens had awarded the All Blacks a try, Beauden Barrett was lining up the conversion and suddenly all bets were off.

An ignorant Twickenham crowd were booing at what they thought was Charlie Faumuina falling short of the line in the All Blacks' critical third try. The footage was replayed over and over and Owens, who might want to work harder on his game than his one-liners, was flapping his arms to say the try he'd been happy to give was now under review.

Nonsense, and surely rugby can't be about to go down this track of mob rule? That's what it is after all, the power of many influencing the mind of one.

Sadly, who can be sure? There was a similar incident at Ellis Park a few weeks back, albeit there was legitimacy in the outcome if not the process. This one at Twickenham was different, though.

Great stadium and a great test and while England are moving in the right direction, they are still lumbered with a fan base that unquestionably has poor knowledge of the rules and worse judgment of what is effective strategy.

When Sam Whitelock ran into a ruck and dived at the ball shortly before Faumuina's try, the crowd howled at his outrageous cheating. They were oblivious that they'd seen someone superbly apply his knowledge of the law, react decisively and bravely to dive on the ball which was over the English tryline and therefore fair game.

The same crowd whooped with delight when Owen Farrell, with 65 better options, slipped into the pocket and pushed a drop goal wide.

Perhaps this shouldn't be a surprise given so many of them think nothing of wearing red jeans with a pink shirt, but such ignorance can't be given a role in test football and certainly not at a World Cup.

Rugby will be held hostage by mean little men in editing suites, hoping to find something, anything, that may have been missed. Whack it on the big screen and who knows, someone in broadcasting could become a World Cup hero: the new Stephen Donald.

It's so absurd that even the IRB can't pretend they don't need to do anything about this. The intention of upgrading the TMO's powers and areas of influence was to ensure the obvious wasn't missed.

It wasn't to put the game under unrealistically intense scrutiny. Down this road a paralysed game lies. A game that barely flows due to the need to check and double check. A game where, let's face it, the All Blacks are more affected than anyone.

Richie McCaw pulled off a turnover so good midway through the second half that every kid in England with aspirations to play No7 should have been told to watch it, learn it, love it. Instead an act of genius was venomously booed and the next generation went home not realising they'd seen one of the greatest players at the peak of his craft, but were instead conditioned a step further into believing the All Black skipper was the ultimate con artist.

At least on that occasion the referee knew what he saw. But in 11 months, when the pressure is higher and the occasion bigger, there might not be the same confidence that officials will resist the ire of the crowd.