Ref a sticking Poite in loss
ALL Blacks coach Steve Hansen has advised rival Michael Cheika to stop complaining about referees, while also denying he secretly met with referee Romain Poite before Saturday’s 29-9 win over the Wallabies.
The ARU sent an official complaint to World Rugby’s integrity unit, alleging Hansen met Poite without its knowledge and in breach of the game’s rules after the All Blacks retained the Bledisloe Cup for the 14th straight year.
“It’s quite sad that that’s come out, because it’s not true,” Hansen said.
“Unless you say ‘G’day Romain’ in the morning, he stayed here at this hotel (at the Intercontinental in Welling- ton). I did have a meeting with (assistant referee) Jaco Peyper this week, at his request. Crono (All Blacks scrum coach Mike Cron) and I both got asked by him to review some of the stuff he had seen in our game, and I’m a firm believer that we’re here to support the referees and help them.
“It’s a difficult game to ref, so why wouldn’t you have the meeting?
“I certainly didn’t have one with Romain Poite. We don’t meet the ref, haven’t done so for about 18-24 months because it’s just a waste of time.”
Cheika said that while they’d sent the complaint to World Rugby, “they’ll probably do nothing about it”.
“It’s just a footnote for us, it’s not a major issue in relation to the game, it’s just something we want to be heard on,” Cheika said.
Cheika slammed the refereeing performance of Poite after his side’s four-tries-to-nil loss, saying he refused to talk with Wallabies captain Stephen Moore to clarify his rulings.
There was surprise that All Blacks prop Owen Franks wasn’t cited by the match review commissioner for putting his hands in the face of Wallaby lock Kane Douglas, which some labelled as a possible eye gouge.
But Hansen shot back: “You’ve got to be really careful until you see all the views, social media were the ones who alerted everyone to it, they certainly don’t get all the views.”