'Entirely different to what the referees asked for': All Blacks assistant on South African TV director's influence

All Blacks assistant Neil Barnes believes that they are “seriously close” to the Springboks after a final 3-1 series result in the Greatest Rivalry Series in Baltimore.

The Springboks lead 17-14 at half-time and had a 29-21 lead with 10 minutes remaining before a big decision on a tackle on Josh Moorby led to a try to Kurt-Lee Arendse.

South Africa secured the win with a 43-28 victory after a last minute try to Beauden Barrett reduced the final score. Speaking with Jason Pine in the aftermath, Barnes shared his thoughts on the final Test and the series.

“For anybody that understands the game, not very far at all,”” Barnes told Jason Pine on Newstalk ZB when asked about the gap between the two teams.

“To be fair, I’ve got a Bud Light sitting in my hand at the moment that I’m chewing through, so obviously disappointed. But the more I reflect, the more I know we’re seriously close to them,

“Probably just not getting the rub of the green, or getting a lot of luck in close moments at the moment. They’re probably, you’re fair to say the better team tonight.

“But holy hecka, like there’s a couple of moments of swinging with about 20 minutes to go, where two or three times in a row we come out on the wrong side of a close call.”

When asked to elaborate on whether it’s officiating decisions or match moments, Barnes said it’s both but revealed that interference from the host broadcaster, in this case SuperSport, that plays a role in dictating how calls are made.

He said that the two-tiered approach by the South African broadcaster continued to show replays that favoured South Africa and even provide different video to the match officials that wasn’t asked for.

Yet anything that would have favoured the All Blacks was not given the same treatment.

“Sometimes you know you get a bounce or something like that, but yeah, there’s definitely a couple of decisions in there that could have gone either way,” he said. 

“You have to put up with the screens when the South Africans are running things that are showing things entirely different to what the referees asked for, and the referees see it and go back to it. But you don’t get the same luxury when something is on the other side of the coin.

“But for us, we can only control what we control, can’t control, and yeah, there’s things that we can do to be better. But like I said right at the start, there’s not much in this at the moment.”

Barnes credited South Africa with playing with more enterprise in the final Test which led to a “good game of rugby” while he believed the All Blacks improved at set-piece time.

“I thought we made a big shift in our set piece tonight compared to what happened last week, so that was good,” he said.

“But at the end of the day, they actually played with some freedom tonight because they were one up in the series, so they couldn’t lose it. And good on them, I thought it was a good game of rugby.

“We’ve got to be in a position where we can actually control the game for longer with the speed of it, fatigue them more. But every time they keep getting penalties for bugger all and get to slow the game down, it brings them back into it.”