'That sort of thing doesn't sit well with you': All Blacks coach left miffed by tackle on Josh Moorby

With the game in the balance in Baltimore with the All Blacks attempting to mount a comeback down 29-21, a try against the run of play to Kurt-Lee Arendse essentially killed off the contest.

Fullback Damian McKenzie broke through the line and tried to link with winger Josh Moorby inside, only for the winger to drop the ball in the tackle of Cameron Hanekom.

Arendse picked up the loose ball and run back 60 meters to score untouched through the tired defence of the All Black forwards.

The tackle on Moorby by Hanekom was ruled to be simultaneous, one of a few close calls that went against the All Blacks that “didn’t sit well” with assistant coach Neil Barnes.

“It’s a normal process to be to look at things like that, I suppose. But yeah, it’s a couple of calls there.” Barnes said on the game-defining moments on Jason Pine’s Newstalk ZB show.

“Well, obviously, you know the one on Josh Moorby when he knocks the ball up, and the guy’s got his arm on the inside so he can’t catch it, and you don’t get the call.

“But they picked up the ball, he dropped, and scored at the other end. It’s a 14-point try. That sort of thing doesn’t sit well with you.”

Despite fixing up the set-piece there were early indiscretions penalised.

Two scrum penalties went against the All Blacks for releasing the brake foot early, but upon inspection Taylor’s release was the same time as Malcolm Marx.

“We get two penalties against at the start of the game for a brake foot, which no one really gives a s*** about, but the referees are concentrating on,” Barnes said.

“And when you look at the video, both teams have done exactly the same thing at the same time. There’s two penalties against us, so I guess for the day, there’s a perception there that they’re the dominant team. But at the moment, they’re getting the rub of the green.

“When that changes, we’ll have a fair go.”

Barnes revealed in the wake of the second Test in Cape Town they received apologies for calls that wrongly went against them which he believed would have made the series 2-0 to the All Blacks.

“As I said to you, the game tonight was bloody close, and they got a couple of calls, and we didn’t, and so that’s the way the rub of the green goes,” he said. 

“You’ve got to suck it up, but you know, I go back to the second Test. We were on the wrong side of some calls there, which we got apologies for, but that would make a series 2-0, and people wouldn’t be thinking like they are.”