Ref says sorry to All Blacks

The All Blacks have warned Australia they won’t have the same assistance at Eden Park after revealing referee Jaco Peyper apologised for a string of mistakes in the Bledisloe Cup opener.

New Zealand coach Steve Hansen said the South African whistle-blower this week admitted he erred in continually awarding short-arm penalties to the Wallabies for scrum pre-engagements in the 12-12 draw in Sydney.

Hansen said Peyper also put his hand up for wrongly sin-binning prop Wyatt Crockett for what was seen as a cynical breakdown foul late in the first half.

While at first the Kiwi mentor didn’t want to go into detail about “other factors” that spoiled All Black plans to dominate up front, he went on to reveal the referee made life tough for his side.

“That has been dealt with,” Hansen said.

“We’ve spoken to the ref about the scrummaging and he put his hand up that he got his free kicks wrong.

“The yellow card was wrong, the first one, that ball was out.

“It was quite a good conversation and I respect the man for his honesty and he’s no different to players: He had a bad day at the office and he put his hand up.

“But I have to emphasise it wasn’t just his problem, we had a hell of a bad day ourselves.”

Hansen has put the onus on his more experienced tight-five to set the platform on Saturday night, and also adapt better to French referee Romaine Poite’s interpretations.

He will meet with Poite, who whistled Australia’s scrum off the park in last year’s Lions series decider, on match eve.

It comes as hooker Dane Coles admitted his frustration at a lack of consistency with the new soft-engagement scrum laws, saying Peyper wanted a small gap between the front-rows when other referees don’t.

“But we have to learn to adjust and adapt quicker on the run,” he said.

Coles just smiled, and put it in his memory bank, when he heard that Wallabies loose-head James Slipper said he didn’t feel under any set-piece pressure at ANZ Stadium.

“I’ll keep that for myself, he’s entitled to his own opinion,” he said. “We’re pretty determined and come Saturday night we’ll what happens.”

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