Rolland is world's best ref – Henry

Irish referee Alain Rolland, who will handle Saturday's Tri-Nations Test, has received glowing praise from All Blacks coach Graham Henry.

Irish referee Alain Rolland, who will handle Saturday's Tri-Nations Test in Wellington, has received glowing praise from All Blacks coach Graham Henry.

Rolland, who as a player earned three caps for Ireland, will be the man in the middle as the Springboks seek revenge for their crushing defeat to New Zealand last week.

The 43-year-old is no stranger to big matches involving Saturday's protagonists having officiated in South Africa's winning World Cup Final in 2007 and New Zealand's 39-12 thrashing of France last November.

In fact, New Zealand have generally had positive experiences under Rolland, including the All Blacks record 52-16 win in Pretoria in 2003.

Since then he controlled New Zealand's 13-9 defeat of Australia at Brisbane in 2006 and the 32-6 hammering of England at Twickenham two years later, both described by Henry as among their best performances in those seasons.

“Alain Rolland is the best referee in the world,” Henry told NZPA.

“He's got a real feel for the game and he's a player's referee; in other words they like playing under him because he's got that feel.”

The Dublin mortgage broker will be in the spotlight after All Blacks assistant coach Wayne Smith's comments midweek that Test officials need to improve fitness levels and keep up with the modern game.

The All Blacks conceded nine unanswered penalties during the middle stages of last weekend's 32-12 defeat of South Africa in Auckland.

Captain Richie McCaw felt Ireland's Alan Lewis let the tacklers get away with more than during the Super 14 and hoped that would change on Saturday.

“For the most part, because we were going forward, we got pretty good ball to use,” he said.

“If we hadn't got to the advantage line as easy as we had it might have been an issue but I think the more [referees] can keep that tackler out the way the more it's going to suit us.

“Hopefully as we go on, in the game's that are a bit more even, the tackler does get made to get out of there.”