Oh no! Wayne Barnes returns to haunt ABs

Yeah he had a very poor game. But to say it cost NZ the Game come on guys. Did the Ref take shots at goal? did the Ref Miss tackles. Yeah he Missed a Forward pass.But ask yourself how many times has a pass gone in favour of NZ. Its always easy to blame someone else for ones failure. We could all blame the Coach for picking the wrong players in some positions

End of the day NZ were not good enough to beat the French. They beat NZ on the day (as they bloody tend to do in WC's :( ) Being World Champions isnt about who is/has been best in the world, its about who is better on that given day. He had 1 bad day in the office. How many times have you had a bad day at work and kocked something up. Did your Boss say to you should never work again. If he has another game like that then yes his employers must look at his performance NZ get over it, Cardiff is history. I cant believe the scribes keep dragging this up. Have any of Rugbyheavens Scribes ever seen whats in the Top Right hand corner of the Page? I honestly dont think they have/or care.

How bad does a referee have to be before people smell a rat? it's mind boggling.

The thing is - most Kiwis are fair people and forgive and forget pretty quickly. If Paddy would just have said: "Wayne Barnes didn't have a great game, and yes he did make mistakes. But some of the blame has to be shared by the touch judges who didn't give him any help. I still think he has the makings of a good test referee, and hopefully he'll learn form this and do better next time"

I think all Kiwis would have accepted that and moved on by now. What is really getting up everyones noses is these continued comments by Paddy - I think he has forgotten where he came from.

Wayne Barnes should not be able to ref an international game EVER AGAIN..sin binning luke mcalister..he didnt even use his side officials..common! how can he be trusted again! ye we say we learn by our mistakes but really common get a new JOB! he could not handle under pressure! whether its a WORLD CUP game or NOT!

New Zealanders in general do not think we rule world rugby! What a easy remark to make! Simply ... put a blanket statement out there Mr Paddy 'lost my loyalty' O'brien and label NZers as all totally arrogant. It goes without saying the standing and history the AB's have in the scope of the game. We are a proud nation in regard to that and will give any challenger a fair go and good luck to all ... however the fact remains Wayne Barnes by his own negligence cost NZ a RWC semi-final ... period! To try to say there would be no ill-feeling or angst between the two is like telling your Mrs you only read Playboy for the intersting articles. Get a grip mate and show them a bit of Kiwi mana up there in that ivory tower!

The real fly in the ointment is Paddywhack. He has cost NZ two RWC's. He helped France beat Fiji in Great Britain, he let the Ayatollah Dunny Door get away with his bitch treatment of the DH, and then he appointed the world's most myopic failed lawyer to the biggest game of the tournament. Did he have problems with the clergy as a child? Clearly hates men in black. Tosser?

Barnes reffing the ABs or any other top tier international is an insult. I have to wonder what has happened to Paddy Obrien, whom I respected as a ref, but who continues to defend the indefensible.

Barnes performance was totally inept at best. What his world cup performance, and the poor reffing at the weekend just gone highlights, is the need for greater use of technology for ruling on key incidents in tests.

There is too much money, too many careers and in fact the credibility of the entire game at stake.

People wonder why the World Cup final of 07 was such a lack lustre spectacle . Its because an injudicious ref appointment combined with the lack of video replay/third official input robbed it of the best team in the world.

Who should get the 'Bezeidenhout Refereeing Blunder of the Century' award? The nominations are: 1. Wayne Barnes - for missing 19 penalty offences and a blatant forward pass. 2. Paddy O'Brien - for defending Barnes's performance. And the winner is...

to posts 22 and 23, did you see the reffing with dickinson... whether we win or lose it is the same, these games are the pinnacle of world rugby and reffing should be in the hands of the best. dickinson completely screwed up that offside call on kaino, and wayne barnes ultimately caused the outcome of the quarter final through successive bad, and MISSED calls.

For Paddy O'brien to put him out there in front of the all blacks again... i dont mind so much.

Of course O'Brien would back up such a bad performance as Barnes's in Cardiff because at an earlier World Cup (1999)Paddy O'Brien destoyed Fiji's chance of going through to the last eight, at the expense of France, by an equally bad refereing performance of his own. Get rid of Barnes then get rid of O'Brien.