Foster: We don’t get any favours

If the All Blacks are ‘‘getting away with murder’’ it’s escaped Ian Foster’s attention.

Former elite England referee Rob Debney reckoned the aftermath of New Zealand’s 52-11 win over France, at Eden Park last Saturday, was ‘‘dominated’’ by claims that the home side’s acts of foul play went unpunished.

Debney went as far as suggesting whistle-blowers are subconsciously lenient towards the All Blacks.

Foster, the All Blacks assistant coach, was succinct when asked if he shared Debney’s view, in the wake of a test in which tackle heights went under the microscope.

‘‘No,’’ Foster said, at the team hotel yesterday.

‘‘You have to ask the referees that, but clearly we don’t think we get any favours from the referees at all.

‘‘They’ve got a tough job and I don’t know a top referee that doesn’t go out there to just ref it the way he sees it.

‘‘If you look at the penalty counts [and] yellow cards last year, we were one of the top yellow-carded teams in the world so I’m not sure how this soft on us [notion] comes to fruition.’’

Referee Luke Pearce, also of England, created some confusion on Saturday, by yellow carding France lock Paul Gabrillagues for a tackle on Ryan Crotty, but not doing the same when All Blacks Sam Cane and Ofa Tu’ungafasi came into contact with Remy Grosso. That second incident was made worse by the fact Grosso ended up in hospital with two facial fractures.

‘‘We’ve been pretty open and honest about how we interpreted last week,’’ said Foster.

‘‘We thought they were a little bit unlucky with their yellow card; it was one of those marginal ones. Was it up there? Yes it was. Was it significant? Probably not.’’

Cane’s was high too, for which the All Blacks conceded a penalty.

‘‘The question is: was it worthy of a yellow card? And, I guess, between a referee and an independent citing commissioner, they’ve said no. So we’ve just got to take the emotion out of it,’’ Foster said.

With France only proving worthy opposition for 50 minutes on Saturday, high tackles and how they’re punished has become a talking point ahead of Saturday’s second test in Wellington.

Players had been coached to tackle up around the ball, in an effort to eliminate offloads, but Foster said ‘‘I think we’d all agree that we’re at a point where we just have to bring it down a bit.’’

Yellow cards have hurt the All Blacks in the past, Foster said, and everyone was working hard to ensure, with tackling in particular, that players avoided things that could get them sinbinned.

‘‘Sometimes bad technique takes over so, as a coaching group and as a team, we’re always trying to coach good technique and trying to get everything within the legal bounds of the game.

‘‘But it’s a dynamic game, isn’t it, and things happen and that’s what referees are there for.

‘‘That’s what the laws are for and I guess that’s what the judiciary are there for and, overall, we’ve got a lot of confidence in that system.’’