Yellow-card barrage angers ABs, pleases UK media 

Replacement prop Neemia Tialata takes a turn in the sinbin. Picture / Getty Images

The barrage of yellow cards dished out to the All Blacks yesterday made flanker Jerry Collins question why he was at Twickenham.

"For a minute there I thought the referee was working at the airport.

"The way he was waving yellow cards I thought a Boeing 747 was going to land in the middle of the field," Collins said after the All Blacks' 23-19 win against England kept them on course for a historic Grand Slam.

Three times in the final 23 minutes, Irish referee Alan Lewis sent All Blacks to the sin-bin - prop Tony Woodcock after 57 minutes of game time, replacement prop Neemia Tialata after 67 minutes, and Chris Masoe two minutes from the end.

At one stage, the All Blacks were reduced to 13 men.

NZ rugby statistician Paul Neazor said the last time the All Blacks received three yellow cards in a game was at Paris against France in November 2002, when the sides drew 20-all.

All the cards were in the first half: prop Kees Meeuws after nine minutes, fullback Christian Cullen after 29 minutes and centre Mark Robinson at 39 minutes, leaving the team short a player for longer than they actually spent on the field in the first half.

Mr Neazor said three yellow cards being given to an international team in one game was "not altogether unusual. It probably happens about once or twice a year".

But he said the yellow-carding of the three All Blacks at Twickenham was hard to swallow. "[The yellow cards] were a lot of rubbish. I thought [the referee had] been overcome by the English whining and moaning."

He said only Woodcock's yellow card was possibly justifiable, as he had been penalised moments beforehand for a late tackle.

The rule making it mandatory for players to leave the field for 10 minutes for a yellow card was introduced in 2001. Before that, it was up to the referee whether to sideline a player.

Mr Neazor said it tended to happen less to top teams such as New Zealand, Australia, England and South Africa, but was more common among lower-ranked nations including Fiji, Samoa and Argentina. "They just seem to get the rough end of the pineapple."

The distinction of the first All Black to be yellow-carded belongs to former captain Anton Oliver, during a match against Argentina in Christchurch in 2001.

Stephen Jones, rugby writer for British newspaper the Sunday Times, had no doubts about what to call the All Blacks' tactics yesterday.

"New Zealand were forced to descend into a craven barrage of cheating in the second half," he wrote.

"The controversy over the refereeing may rage on for a little while, but only if New Zealand fail to accept that they had to commit every last offence known to the law book to try to keep going as England thundered at them in the second half.

"All we neutrals will be fervently applauding a referee who simply refused to buy into that quaint Kiwi notion that only the other lot kill the game."

The Scotland on Sunday wrote that all three cards were "thoroughly deserved".

- STAFF REPORTER and NZPA