Reds coach Brad Thorn has become the latest to criticise the standard of match officiating in rugby after his side's 39-16 loss to the Blues.
The Blues won their first game at Eden Park in 2018 in their final home game of the season, but Thorn was not pleased with calls that went in favour of the Auckland franchise.
The Reds were down to 13 players in the first half after they lost winger Jordan Petaia and prop Taniela Tupou the sin-bin a minute apart midway through the first spell, which swung the game in favour of the Blues side.
At the time the Blues held a narrow 8-6 lead, but once the Reds were back at full strength the lead was 21-6, and there was no coming back.
Officiating was already under the spotlight after many hotly-debated decisions throughout the June test window, mainly in both the All Blacks-France and Australia-Ireland series
"The game is in an interesting place, isn't it?" said a frustrated Thorn. "I don't know if that's enjoyable for anyone.
"Everyone is talking about that at the moment, both sides of the Tasman. It's interesting.
"Probably the number one thing, like for a lot of fans, coaches and players everywhere, it's hurting the game. The game is getting hurt.
"If that's what rugby is, where you slow things down... a lifting tackle where he didn't drive him into the ground. And Taniela came up, his hands from what I saw were in front of him, and he went in hard and low... if you want to penalise, but then yellow card as well?"
The former All Blacks lock spoke about his time playing the game and how much has changed in the last few years.
"There's a lot of things in rugby that are interesting. Even the knock-down rules, it's often a yellow card. In rugby league, you just get on with it. Bad pass, pack a scrum, get on with it.
"It's an interesting place that the game is in. If that's where we want to go ... for me it's hard. I was a physical player; I enjoyed hitting rucks hard and played my league in the '90s.
"As a 12-year-old I remember my coach pulling me aside at halftime, 'when you pick a guy up drive him into the dirt'. I'm not saying we do that, but for me, it's an interesting place. Referees are trying their best."
Surprisingly, Blues coach Tana Umaga agreed with Thorn's comments after he saw two of his players sent to the sin-bin during the second half.
"It's a tough one," said Umaga. "We need to get clarity. I'm sure Thorny will be looking to get clarity around the reasons why too. As everyone says, the magic word is consistency around those.
"We'll keep asking the questions because we've got to make sure we give that certainty to our players. What are we looking for? What do we need to adapt to?
"There's no doubt it's affecting games and the powers that be will make those big decisions if they have to."
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