Frustrated Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie wants a crackdown on cynical infringements stopping tries and believes it can happen if referees improve advantage laws.
The All Blacks were deserved 27-16 victors to claim the Bledisloe Cup again with a 2-0 series advantage in Wellington on Saturday night but Australia were left to bemoan “regular” Kiwi transgressions when the Wallabies were hot on attack.
The Wallabies were seething after Aaron Smith and then Kieran Read both infringed at the ruck after Christian Lealiifano was pulled down a metre from the line in the 24th minute.
Australia already had a penalty on advantage when Read cynically scragged Will Genia at the base of the breakdown with a try in the offing.
Leiliifano slotted the goal for a 6-0 lead but the Wallabies felt it should have been more and Read should have been sin-binned.
“When we do get a line break and then do get an advantage it seems like they just want to try and kill the ball so you we don’t get to play off a line break or play over the advantage line,” Genia said.
“We get three points but ideally you want to get seven points.”
When they chased the game, the Wallabies also had a long advantage in the Kiwi quarter but lost their chance at a try when Conrad Smith raced up off-side as Genia passed to Scott Fardy.
“Once you conceded a penalty and the referee plays advantage then it just seems to me to be open slather to concede another one and another one because he has already conceded the first one so you already know it’s going back,” McKenzie said.
He was also unhappy that South African referee Jaco Peyper failed to deliver a general team warning for repeated infringements at the ruck because the initial indiscretion was forgotten about as play moved on.
McKenzie said he’ll be speaking to referees about the issue.
“The whole idea of advantage is brilliant: The idea is to see if you can get over the tryline but what happens within the advantage is interesting,” he said.
“Within that broad perspective we’ll ask the question.
“Obstensibly the game is about scoring tries.”
All Blacks coach Steve Hansen responded by warning McKenzie that he shouldn’t turn a blind eye to his own players bending the rules.
“He needs to be careful how far he takes that,” Hansen said. “When they have a good look at it, they’ll see the Aussies taking us out off the ball.
“He might find that backfires on him.
“Usually you’re better off just to play the game and get on with it. “You can’t blame the ref.”