According to Planet Rugby, Paddy O'Brien has admitted that Barnes, Spreadbury and Kaplan messed up at least three calls in the New Zealand v France quarter-final. This is why none of them are involved in the later rounds of matches - big call when Spreaders was awarded the opening match, presumably to set the tone for officiating!
He then, rather bizarrely, goes on to say he doesn't think it affected the outcome.
Just in case you've forgotten, the All Blacks lost by 2 points. France scored 7 from a forward pass that went unnoticed by the officials. France regained the ball illegally in a ruck near their line that went missed by the officials. There was also an offside by France at the ruck that was missed, and in a kickable position. If the forward pass was called, no try. New Zealand win by 5. If the ball wasn't handled in the ruck, possible All Black try, if the penalty was called and kicked, New Zealand win by 1, 3 or 5 depending on what happened next. If the offside was called and kicked, New Zealand win by 1 point. Now, of course, it's possible that McAllister would have missed the kicks, but if ANY of the mistakes hadn't been made there was a good to excellent chance New Zealand would have won. If NONE of them had been made New Zealand would have won quite comfortably if McAllister had kicked straight.
You can, of course, argue that if the All Blacks had played better it wouldn't have mattered, and that's a fair call. But, saying the refereeing decisions didn't affect the outcome is just illogical Paddy.
All of that aside, it's good to see that there is some clear line of "punishment" for screwing up. It's a crying shame it has to happen, coincidentally or not, in such a fashion that the clear favourites for the competition get knocked out of the competition by a team of officials that, purely by coincidence of course, are composed of people from the country they'd be playing next and the country they're most likely to be playing in the final.
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