KEY POINTS:
All Blacks coach Graham Henry has made a double plea to test rugby referees -- to ignore "gamesmanship" and to crack down on players being taken out off the ball behind play.
Although he would not mention names or incidents, Henry is clearly addressing two areas that have impacted on his team this year.
Henry chose the eve of the Tri-Nations test against South Africa here tomorrow night to highlight again the danger of players being targeted for extra attention in acts often not picked up by referees because it is away from play.
Captain Richie McCaw has been a popular target for both the Springboks and Wallabies in the past year and Henry said the perpetrators were walking on thin ice.
"Players are not expecting to be hit off the ball when they're running to a tackle area or whatever it may be. They're not ready for it so that can be very dangerous and cause serious injury," Henry said.
"We do discuss those things with the officials and we hope they pick them up but it's not something that we dwell on."
Tomorrow's referee is experienced Australian Stuart Dickinson, who has controlled the All Blacks eight times and the Springboks seven.
That will please Henry, who went on to add that inexperienced officials can be influenced more easily by player chat.
In the 15-20 loss to Australia two weeks ago, youthful South African referee Marius Jonker failed to take control of messy scrums, choosing to penalise both teams equally even though the All Blacks had a distinct advantage there.
Veteran halfback George Gregan and other Wallabies were in Jonker's ear all night at Melbourne, unlike McCaw and his New Zealand teammates.
"Refereeing is about strength of character, not being deviated by gamesmanship, and just refereeing what you see," Henry said.
"There are some strong referees around the world who can do that. Some are learning to do that.
"It's just when you get caught up in the learning process that you might get stung.
"Referees have got to experience big test matches and sometimes in that learning curve you get caught up in something that you say 'well, that wasn't that good'."
McCaw said the chief lesson he took from Melbourne was to react better to a referee's interpretations during a game.
"Perhaps for a period of the game, we as a team weren't smart, we gave away quite a few penalties that were probably unnecessary because we thought we were in the right but the ref thought otherwise," McCaw said.
"You can moan about it afterwards but that ain't going to help you."
Henry has become more outspoken on the topic of match officials in recent times.
He has stated more than once that test referees tend to favour home sides, pointing to statistics that back up his argument.
Today he added a new element, saying that Northern Hemisphere officials need to spend more time south of the equator, where rugby is being played at a faster pace.
"The game's a lot slower (in Europe) and I don't think quick ball at the tackle area is a huge part of the game," Henry said.
"When Northern Hemisphere referees referee a Southern Hemisphere contest, I don't think they understand the value of quick ball at the tackle.
"That is a problem because they're not used to it so ... if you referee 90 Northern Hemisphere games and then you've got this game in which (teams) are trying to get quick ball at the tackle, you're the only one who doesn't understand it."
Asked whether the All Blacks prefer playing under Southern Hemisphere referees, Henry diplomatically said some of the world's premier match officials hailed from the north.
- NZPA
