Rassie Erasmus has shed light on recently changed World Rugby officiating protocols after Italy coach Gonzalo Quesada publicly questioned several decisions in his side's 47-17 loss to the All Blacks in the Nations Championship.
Quesada's chief grievance centred on the reversal of a yellow card shown to New Zealand's Ruben Love for a deliberate knock-on. Referee Luc Ramos issued the card, but TMO Ben Whitehouse overturned it after ruling an Italian player had knocked the ball on first.
Erasmus was reluctant to weigh in on the specific incident but used it as a prompt to explain the new framework governing coach-referee interaction. Under the revised system, a pre-match meeting between coaches and the referee only takes place if both head coaches opt in — a change that has already produced a notable result in the Nations Championship.
"We haven't had a meeting with the referee because other coaches haven't said yes, so that's new," Erasmus said. "I don't 100% understand the logic behind it. Not criticising them, of course; they communicated that to us and put it through."
The changes also affect how coaches can flag concerns through World Rugby's AMS system. Where Erasmus once submitted lengthy video compilations — a practice that generated considerable attention — coaches are now limited to six submissions per query, with a significant catch: all submissions are visible to every other head coach and referee in the competition.
"It's almost now impossible to criticise the referee," Erasmus said, "because if you have 10 or 12 things that bothered you, you either have to sit with the other coach and the referee, or you put it on the AMS system — then all the referees see it and all the coaches see it. So it's almost like you're publishing something now."
Erasmus acknowledged sympathy for Quesada's position while stopping short of endorsing his complaints. "I know Quesada really well, he's a good guy, and Italy is certainly a team that I thought last year was on the up. He was probably also a bit frustrated with that."
He reserved quiet scepticism for the reforms themselves. "I'm not sure if it's bettering our game, the new protocol."