Australia

Aussies unhappy about IRB ref slam

Friday, November 20 The Australian Rugby Union has voiced their dissatisfaction to the International Rugby Board about criticism Stuart Dickinson received from IRB referee manager, Paddy O’Brien.

O’Brien reportedly met with All Black coach Graham Henry in London earlier this week to apologise for Dickinson’s officiating of last weekend’s Test between New Zealand and Italy.

The All Blacks secured a 20-6 victory but were frequently penalised at scrum time, especially in the final 10 minutes of the Test, which led Italy coach Nick Mallett to proclaim the Azzurri should have been awarded a penalty try.

However, O’Brien believes it was the Italians who were in the wrong.

"ARU wishes to express its considerable surprise at these developments," the governing body said in a statement on Friday.

"We expect to see this transparent approach adopted on a consistent basis for all elite referees in the future.

"Also, the ARU thinks that the criticism of Dickinson, the leading referee in Australia for a number of years, was lacking in balance."

The ARU said it would be happy to discuss the findings of its own analysis with O'Brien.

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