Rugby World Cup officiating criticized by former All Blacks

Not the refereeing but the rules. The ref just followed the rules which are dangerous head contact is a red card even if not deliberate and no injury caused.

South Africa the deserved winners. Their number seven played out of this world. My friend and I were wondering if they'd cloned him and put them both on the field. He was everywhere.

The TMO role needs clarification. Didn't step in when Barnes incorrectly penalised Savea, admitted to it after seeing the replay on the big screen, but still let Pollard take the three points. Then overrules a try for a knock on after Barnes had clearly said, "No knock on!" and had allowed play to continue.

Lazy offside runner not carded when New Zealand had a clear overlap on that side, and a swinging green arm to a NZ player's face completely ignored.

That said, New Zealand turned down some easy kicks at goal and also left five points on the kicking tee. Not to mention, the try they did score was preceded by a clear forward pass.

Unfortunately there will always be bad losers. No respect for the winning team.

the try they did score was preceded by a clear forward pass.

I don’t think it was forward, after initially being suspicious myself.

"Yeah, he's a disappointment to the country. I can't stand behind a man that leads an All Blacks team to that kind of loss."

Tough… lose the final by 1 point having played a man down, when you were supposed to have been knocked out in the QFs.

Like Kirwan, I don’t think this was a great New Zealand side but they played well in the QF versus Ireland. Besides that match, they haven’t actually done that much great recently.

South Africa thrashed New Zealand in the warm up and won more tougher matches on the way to the final. They looked pretty fragile winning 3 games straight by one point, but they didn’t win.

Cant argue with Dagg about the rules though, I was concerned that they might have undue impact on the results of tight matches, and that seems to have been the case. It’s the same for both sides though, so congratulations to the Springboks! First to four!

Unfortunately there will always be bad losers. No respect for the winning team.

The players and coaching staff aren’t really sore losers here though. Some of the fans, sure. These guys speaking out are former players, so really a little more than glorified fans. They’re quite right though… throughout the tournament the officiating has been a shambles. I’m not saying the all blacks should have won at all, but a little more consistency from the refs and TMOs would be good.

ABs and Springboks still have massive respect for each other.

I don’t think it was forward, after initially being suspicious myself.

The officials certainly agree with you so it's likely you're right. Looked well forward to me, though.

Sad to see that. But Kirwan has always been an outspoken pundit and recently he has been so obsessed with the use of TMOs. But listening to Sam Cane and Beauden Barrett speaking after the game, they are both class acts as I am sure are the majority of the All Blacks.

The complaints about the officiating seem unwarranted. All of the big decisions were correct - they were in line with the laws of the game. Prior to the advent of the TMO there were much bigger issues. If the current laws of the game are at issue, this is for World Rugby, and not Wayne Barnes and Tom Foley.

The whole match was a farce with poor refereeing / match officiating! Both sides suffered from this poor performances of the match officials! What a wonderful World Cup with almost all unpredictable matches and close wins and loses. But the final was just terrible as at times it seemed that the video referee and field referee were just completely doing different things and lacked proper communication.