Former All Blacks hooker James Parsons has weighed into the debate around refereeing following the Bledisloe Cup clash at the weekend.

While the Wallabies were frustrated by some of the calls, New Zealand were also heavily penalised, particularly when they had the ball.

Individuals were regularly pulled up for sealing off at the breakdown or going in through the side, stopping the momentum Scott Robertson’s team had generated.

Italian Andrea Piardi was incredibly strict at the contact area, which differed from the previous officials they have had this year.

Certain referees will be a bit more lenient when it comes to going off their feet, but the All Blacks infringed that law on a few occasions in Auckland.

Dealing with the opposition breakdown threats

“This is one of the rules I really struggle with,” Parsons said on the Aotearoa Rugby Pod.

“I’m a big believer that you’ve got to react to the ref and make adjustments based on that.

“If you’ve got some threats, if you think back to your David Pocock’s, Michael Hooper’s and you see them in and around [the breakdown], you rush in because you’ve got to get rid of them.

“If they pull out, you’re just so committed, there is no stopping. It is a penalty, I get it, but I just think they played the Mickey Mouse really well.

“We were looking to have a physical presence. Sometimes when you go in with that mindset – you want to hurt bodies, you really want to set a tone – but once you overcommit and lose the ability to stop, you open yourself up to a penalty.”

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Parsons did not think Piardi was necessarily incorrect with how he applied the law, but that the All Blacks were simply caught out on this occasion, given the way different referees interpret the breakdown.

“It’s just reffed inconsistently. I’m not saying it was over the 80 minutes, I’m just saying week-to-week – it’s a frustrating one,” he said.

“Sometimes you put guys in a bib during the training week and they would have an orange bib saying they’re David Pocock or Michael Hooper.

“Sometimes because you’ve trained it, it’s ingrained in your mind that when you see them, you rush. Sometimes they’re not late but because you rush as they’re such a threat, you’re too early and you’re hitting nothing.

“From the ref’s side, you’ve taken the opportunity away to have a fair contest and that’s when the penalties happen. It’s a balance as sometimes you can be too early but too aggressive.”

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Joe Schmidt’s influence

The ex-All Blacks and Blues front-rower also put it down to a piece of Joe Schmidt genius, with the Wallabies boss no doubt letting the referee know about New Zealand’s ruck tactics.

“I still think it’s Joe Schmidt, the breakdown is his thing, he lives and breathes for that area. He knows the All Blacks players really well, so he would have picked it apart,” he said.

“In that coach, captain and ref meeting, he would have planted those seeds.

“There’s a lot that goes into it during the week that leads to things that don’t normally get penalised, it’s normally to do with conversations leading up to the Test.”

Parsons has experience of those meetings with match officials, having captained the Blues during his playing days.

He gave a brief insight into what goes on and how they attempt to get the referees looking at it from their perspective ahead of a game.

“You’re just putting your case forward around what you’ve seen and opportunities you’re trying to attempt,” he added.

“They give you absolutely nothing. It’s a beautiful meeting, I’ll tell you. ‘Do you want a coffee mate’, and all those pleasantries, you’re just looking for that inch – just give us an inch on the day.

“Maybe you’ll say six things and one will stick with them. You also learn about the ref’s trends and then you’ll play into that, ‘oh, your trends are this, so we’ve made some adjustments around that’.

“It’s not just looking at the opposition, you sort of position what you’re trying to do to fit in with his trends.”

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