All Blacks coach slams referee for giving Springboks ‘penalties for bugger all’ in final Greatest Rivalry series clash
All Blacks senior assistant coach Neil Barnes (inset) and referee Karl Dickson.
All Blacks senior assistant coach Neil Barnes has slammed the officiating during his team’s Greatest Rivalry series Test against the Springboks in Baltimore on Saturday.
South Africa clinched a 3-1 series victory over the All Blacks courtesy of an impressive 43-28 triumph, with the world champions eventually outscoring the men in black by six tries to four in front of a USA rugby record crowd of more than 68,000 spectators.
Unhappy with Karl Dickson’s refereeing
However, Barnes voiced his displeasure in the aftermath over some of the decisions made by referee Karl Dickson, claiming that the Springboks “got the rub of the green” from the match official.
Barnes also suggested that the end result could have been different if the world champions had not “kept getting penalties for bugger all”.
“I thought it was a good game of rugby, to be fair,” he told Newstalk ZB. “We’ve got to be in a position where we can actually control the game for longer with the speed of it to fatigue them more.
“Every time they keep getting penalties for bugger all and get to slow the game down, it brings them back into it.
“We get two penalties against us at the start of the game for a brake foot, which no one really gives a s*** about, but the referees are concentrating on.
“And when you look at the video, both teams have done exactly the same thing at the same time. There’s two penalties against us.
“So, I guess at the end of the day, there’s a perception there that they are the dominant team, but at the moment they’re getting the rub of the green,” he added. “When that changes, we’ll have a fair go.”
Although the Boks’ victory at the M&T Bank Stadium confirmed their status as the leading team in the international arena, Barnes believes the All Blacks are “seriously close” to the world champions’ standard of play.
‘Probably just not getting the rub of the green’
“The more I reflect, the more I know we’re seriously close to them,” he said. “Probably just not getting the rub of the green or getting a lot of luck in close moments at the moment.
“Clearly they’re probably, fair to say, the better team tonight. But holy heck, there’s a couple of moments swinging with about 20 minutes to go where two or three times in a row we have come out on the wrong side of a close call which let them skip away from us a little bit.”
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The All Blacks spent six weeks in South Africa during the Greatest Rivalry tour before heading to the USA for their final encounter and despite losing the Test series, Barnes believes the men in black are moving in the right direction under the guidance of their head coach Dave Rennie.
“I definitely think we’re on the right track,” he added. “We’ve got to fine-tune things. It’s been a hell of a tour, something that we’re pretty proud of what we’ve achieved on the way.
“Learned a lot about each other and, as a team, grown on the whole way through. So you don’t call it one of the greatest rivalries for nothing.
“We’re playing against one of the best teams in the world and probably one of the best ever and at the moment they’ve got our number, but we’re not far away from them.”