ARU condemns Paddy O'Brien's criticism

The Australian Rugby Union has condemned the singling out of its leading referee by the International Rugby Board (IRB) following New Zealand's dour 20-6 win over Italy last weekend.

The IRB's referee manager, New Zealander Paddy O'Brien, met All Blacks coach Graham Henry in London this week, reportedly to apologise for referee Stuart Dickinson's handling of the test, then made critical comments about the Australian's interpretation of the scrum laws.

The ARU issued a statement today saying that it was surprised by O'Brien's harsh public appraisal and demanded consistency in dealing with the performance of elite level referees.

"The IRB practice through Mr. O'Brien has generally been to avoid singling out referees and making public comment about their performances," the ARU statement said.

"The ARU has no problem with this change in practice and in fact welcomes the open appraisal of refereeing performances.

"However, and importantly, following the negative and very public review of Stuart Dickinson, we expect to see this transparent approach adopted on a consistent basis for all elite referees in the future. "

The ARU said the criticism of Dickinson lacked balance and that "analysis of scrums is an inexact science".

Dickinson awarded Italy a series of scrum penalties in the final minutes of Saturday's match, leading Italy's South African coach Nick Mallett to say his side should have been given a penalty try.

O'Brien said it was the Italians, not the All Blacks, who were infringing.

"The best example I can use is in the last 10 minutes there were eight scrums of which seven, the tighthead for Italy is purely illegal," O'Brien said.

"Up here they're crying that it should have been a penalty try. It should have been a penalty first scrum to the All Blacks."

O'Brien said Dickinson had been told to watch a video of the match, would receive coaching on scrums and had been told to lift his game or miss out on future appointments.

"We've got to be fair to teams. If the referee is not accurate we've got to put our hand up. We need to educate that referee and get him better because that scrummaging on Saturday was not up to international standard," he was quoted as saying.

The 41-year-old Dickinson has been contracted to the ARU since 1996 and as acted as referee in 44 international matches, as well as regular Super 14 matches.

Dickinson was a television match official during the 2007 World Cup final between South Africa and England and made a controversial decision to decline a try for England winger Mark Cueto in a line-ball call.

O'Brien publicly supported Dickinson's call after that match.

The New Zealand Rugby Union declined comment when contacted about O'Brien's reported comments this week.

The All Blacks play England at Twickenham on Sunday (NZT).

- AP