Referees play such an important role that they could well decide the Rugby World Cup winner in October. Over the past three weeks we have seen close games with no more than five points separating the Tri-Nations sides. These matches have had several incidents where referee-dependent decisions have potentially cost either side victory. The collision area, lineouts and scrums in particular are areas so open to interpretation that they are a potential minefield for even the most experienced international players and officials.

It seems strange how top international players can be penalised so often for infringements. It is difficult to know if the players purposely break rules knowing that they only sometimes get caught or if they are actually legitimately uncertain. The All Blacks conceded a large number of penalties against Australia, yet were hardly penalised against South Africa.

I want to hark back to the Australia v All Blacks match, where penalties and free kicks were handed out willy-nilly at scrum time. This occurred despite the obvious difference in class between Carl Hayman, Anton Oliver and Tony Woodcock and Australian rookies Matt Dunning, Stephen Moore and Guy Shepherdson. The referee's whistle nullified the advantage the All Blacks were trying to attain.

'The collision area, lineouts and scrums in particular are areas so open to interpretation that they are a potential minefield for even the most experienced international players and officials'

Rewind a week and a similarly dominant All Black front row was allowed to use the scrum as a major attacking weapon against a Springbok pack whi ch had the wood on the Australians the week before. How can there be such a difference in interpretation? It appeared like a guessing on Saturday night at scrum time.

The sin-binning of powerhouse prop Hayman allowed the Wallabies to score 14 unanswered points in his absence. He was the victim of constant infringing. The actual infringement was innocuous enough but came after New Zealand received a battering in the penalty count. The usually law-abiding New Zealanders were hammered by penalties and this ruined their game. They panicked and kept trying to play a fast and furious game that worked in the second half against the Springboks, but against the Wallabies the passes didn't stick, the kicks floated out on the full and they missed the tackles.

The sin-binning of Springbok forward Danie Roussouw against the All Blacks in similar circumstances also proved costly as the rejuvenated All Blacks took advantage of a home side fatigued because of their period with one man down. These two incidents were the result of some constant infringing, but the sin-binning incidents themself were dubious enough and very open to interpretation by the referee. The incidents cost the side with the player sent off in both games.