KEY POINTS:
It is not just a player drain hitting New Zealand - top referees are suddenly in short supply, too.
Just four years ago New Zealand had a glut of international-class whistlers who were recognised as among the best. Paddy O'Brien, Paul Honiss, Kelvin Deaker and Steve Walsh. Others such as Lyndon Bray and Bryce Lawrence were coming through the ranks and the country had the quality of officials the players deserved.
But now the cupboard is alarmingly bare. O'Brien is long retired and ensconced in his management job with the IRB. Honiss retired last month, Deaker wasn't given any Six Nations appointments this year suggesting his days at the top are numbered and Walsh, once a rising star, has issues with fitness and temperament. Bray is off contract next year and is thought unlikely to carry on, leaving Lawrence as the last hope.
New Zealand Rugby Union general manager of professional rugby, Neil Sorensen, acknowledges stocks are not as bountiful as they once were and that the union faces a real challenge replenishing them.
"It's a bit tougher than replacing top-class players, for numerous reasons. One of the issues we have is that a lot of our emerging referees are successful business people as well," said Sorensen.
"Take for example Jonathan White, who is a young referee with a lot of ability. He's also training to be a specialist surgeon. So he faces a tough choice - can he put that on hold to chase his dream of being an international referee?
"That would be a lifestyle choice for him. The money he can earn as a surgeon is way in excess of what we can afford to pay him as a referee. Maybe we have to look at different models where referees can hold down full-time jobs and still be given the biggest games."
The difficulty with that scenario is the game, under the new laws, is faster and more aerobically demanding than ever, making the challenge so much greater for referees.
Fatigue tends to set in earlier under the ELVs and that is when it is exceptionally hard for referees to make accurate calls.
While referees are so often an easy target for fans, coaches and players, few officials would disagree with the commonly held belief that 2008 has illustrated the lack of experienced and competent referees not just in New Zealand, but elsewhere in the Southern Hemisphere.
Crucial mistakes have been made in some of the Tri Nations tests - most notably the failure by Stuart Dickinson to yellow card Brad Thorn early in the Wellington test against the Boks. That lack of action hurt both teams - firstly it denied the Boks an opportunity to play against 14 men for 10 minutes and it probably also cost Thorn a week's suspension. If he'd been carded at the time, it is likely the citing commissioner would have seen that as penalty enough.
Marius Jonker then failed to take action in the Sydney test against the Wallabies when Sitiveni Sivivatu was tackled without the ball under the Australian posts. He later admitted he was not close enough to the action to see and, having seen the replay on TV, would have definitely given a penalty if not a penalty try.
These are specific incidents that have stood out but the real problems have come in the general handling of tests by referees. There are too many basic infringements such as forward passes, knock-ons and offsides that are going undetected while the management of some officials is erratic.
Sorensen says that under NZRU referee coach, Colin Hawke, there is confidence a wave of effective and confident referees is ready to emerge. Hawke has been running training camps for a wider group of officials further down the chain which has fast-tracked the skills of some promising young officials.
"I think it is fair to say we need to see the next generation of referees come through," Sorensen said. "It's a bit like the players - we have seen talented referees retire in recent years and we need to see the next wave come through.
"We need to give our players the quality of referees they deserve as professionals. I think this Tri Nations has shown us that. The referees, when they are out there, are so exposed and we have to give them every support we can to enable them to do their jobs."
