RWC Ref blunders

"The All Blacks encountered this scenario in RWC 2007 in Cardiff. They lost a match in which they dominated territory and possession but couldn't break down a French side who were offside all night and were illegally slowing down our ball at the breakdown. An inexperienced referee (Wayne Barnes) was put in charge of arguably the biggest game of the tournament and he subsequently lost the plot. As far as the rest of the world were concerned the All Blacks had "choked" again and the absolutely awful display of refereeing went unpunished. A similar performance by Bryce Lawrence four years later left Springboks fans fuming, a game that effectively ended Bryce's refereeing career as he didn't get the same cotton wool treatment that Barnsey got four years earlier. The rest of the world believe that Craig Joubert aided the All Blacks in the 2011 Final yet there was no clear evidence that Craig had lost the plot with the whistle. His performance was certainly far better than Bryce and Wayne's efforts and I think the claims he aided the ABs are more down to disappointment that the choker tag could no longer be used and is the exact thing you talk about Mark. Because the three games I've mentioned were all decided by two points or less there was always going to be claims that the side that lost were robbed, so the onus on the All Blacks will be to m ake sure they win convincingly enough to avoid these controversies. The nature of knock out rugby means that all the games will be tight and could come down to a defining moment. Let's hope that defining moment is not one caused by a refereeing blunder."