Whether it was by design or not, New Zealand coach Stephen Kearney could not have picked a better time to plead his case for NRL referees to control the mid-year Test against Australia.

Left bemused by several interpretations by English referee Richard Silverwood in the 20-12 loss to the Kangaroos at Eden Park on Friday night, Kearney said it was time for the practice of bringing out a neutral referee for the game to end.

Sitting in the press conference listening intently was ARL Commission chairman John Grant, who had joined six of the other seven commissioners in attending the game in Auckland.

“I can’t see why we can’t have an NRL referee – we play under those conditions, we’re used to the interpretations,” Kearney said.

His plea was supported by Kiwi skipper Benji Marshall.

“It’s different – without any disrespect to Richard, the interpretations for a lot of things were very different,” Marshall said.

“I agree with Steve, I’d have no problems whether they were Australian referees or not.

“NRL referees, I’m sure they’d do the same job and at least the interpretations would be the same for both teams.”

The use of a neutral referee – which has been a directive of the Rugby League International Federation for some years now, was one of several issues raised about the environment in which the game is played.

Kangaroos coach Tim Sheens also supported the use of an NRL referee, but said he was more concerned with getting the whole rugby league community playing by the one set of rules.

“Four years when I started (as Australian coach) we had two rule changes (for international games),” Sheens said.

“Now I’ve got two and a half pages of differences in the international interpretations, so I am worried about where we’re going there.

“I think it needs to be addressed by the World Cup next year.”