Sir John Kirwan has hit out at the officiating in Rugby\u2019s Greatest Rivalry series finale, pinpointing the decision to allow Kurt-Lee Arendse\u2019s try as a key point in the match.<\/p>\n
The All Blacks legend spent the first nine minutes of the Rivals podcast moaning about the officiating in Saturday\u2019s US clash, with the 61-year-old particularly frustrated that Cameron Hanekom was not penalised.<\/p>\n
Looking to get back into the contest at 29-21 in arrears, New Zealand<\/a> put together a spellbinding attack which sent Damian McKenzie through.<\/p>\n The controversial incident<\/p>\n The full-back had two options either side of him \u2013 Josh Moorby and Will Jordan \u2013 but he chose the latter where Hanekom was lurking.<\/p>\n It was deemed by the officials that the tackle made by the Springboks<\/a> replacement and Moorby receiving the ball was simultaneous.<\/p>\n The wing also tripped up prior to the hit but that was deemed accidental and, as a result, Arendse was able to collect the ball, run 70 metres and touch down to open up a 36-21 lead for his side.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought it was an amazing series, I thought it was fantastic for rugby, both sides gave everything and it was incredible,\u201d Kirwan<\/a> said. \u201c[But] what frustrated me was the refereeing, there\u2019s just something about the way he refs, you can\u2019t get any rhythm.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought a couple of decisions went against us. That early tackle and that leg trip is definitely a penalty and definitely a yellow card.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought the rhythm of the game was falling our way, I thought we\u2019re going to come back like the first Test, I thought the Springboks were out on their feet.<\/p>\n \u201cLeg trip and an early tackle, he looks at it three times. If you\u2019re a New Zealander, you look at it and go, \u2018that\u2019s an early tackle and a trip every day of the week\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cHe looks at it and it\u2019s a 14-point turnaround, for me that was the game there, so that was frustrating.\u201d<\/p>\n All Blacks coach slams referee for giving Springboks \u2018penalties for bugger all\u2019 in final Greatest Rivalry series clash<\/a><\/p>\n Kirwan\u2019s admission<\/p>\n South Africa ended up claiming a 43-28 triumph over the All Blacks on Saturday as they sealed a 3-1 series triumph after initially going 1-0 down in Johannesburg.<\/p>\n Rassie Erasmus\u2019 men won three Tests in a row and Kirwan did admits that the back-to-back world champions were the better team throughout.<\/p>\n \u201cRetrospectively, I think the Springboks deserved to win the series in the end, I think that we made too many critical errors at the wrong time, we need to go away and look at that,\u201d he said<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were some silly penalties at critical times, Tupou Vaa\u2019i holding on a bit too long when we were putting them under pressure, so we just let the game slip a wee bit, but that doesn\u2019t take away from what a great series it was.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been fantastic for the game, it\u2019s been an amazing series, I\u2019ve absolutely loved it, but I was pretty frustrated yesterday to be fair.\u201d<\/p>\n That did not stop Kirwan from having one final moan at the refereeing, however, which he believe did not help the flow of the game in Baltimore.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy would you put a northern hemisphere ref in charge of a southern hemisphere game? Forget the results, you guys deserved to win, I\u2019ll admit that, right across the series you were the better side\u2026 but this ref has the ability to just make the game pedantic,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n