Former All Blacks coach Sir Graham Henry has escaped serious sanction for his provocative criticism of Super Rugby match officials following the Blues’ 23-3 loss to the Crusaders last week.

Super Rugby governing body SANZAR brought a misconduct complaint against the Blues assistant coach, which was heard on Sunday by judicial officer Jannie Lubbe.

In releasing his finding, Lubbe said that Henry wrote to SANZAR immediately after he was advised of the investigation conceding his remarks were inappropriate.

He apologised, saying it was never his intention to offend the officials involved.

Taking that into account, and his exemplary record as a rugby coach stretching over 40 years, Henry was reprimanded for breaching SANZAR’s code of conduct and warned not to do it again.

He must also publicly apologise to SANZAR and the match officials involved.

Henry’s comments focused on New Zealand television match official Keith Brown, saying he got two crucial decisions wrong during the game at Christchurch.

“He is probably a blind TMO is he?” Henry said.

He described a yellow card awarded to Blues lock Cullum Retallick for deliberately knocking down a pass as “bullshit”, and said it was “ludicrous” that Blues winger Frank Halai wasn’t awarded a penalty try in a separate incident.

Henry also said Crusaders prop Wyatt Crockett “got away with murder” at scrum time.