Blues coach Pat Lam has fired up over what he believes was unfair officiating in his side’s 32-39 Super 14 defeat to the NSW Waratahs in Sydney.

It’s an interesting tactic from the Blues coach in the wake of his side’s third defeat of the season and in a week where they confront the competition-leading Bulls at Eden Park (5.30pm on Saturday), and will have to do so without injured All Black loosehead prop Tony Woodcock.

But whether it’s a motivational ploy, or just a frustration he feels he has to get off his chest, Lam was clearly distressed enough by the officiating in Saturday night’s SFS heartbreaker that he made it a theme of his Monday press session.

The highly entertaining match, which the Tahs sealed with a 72nd-minute 90m intercept try to Lachlan Turner, was refereed by inexperienced Kiwi Garratt Williamson who had officiated in just one Super 14 contest prior to this season.

Running the line were Aussies Paul Marks and James Leckie, and Lam made it more than clear that he thought the two assistant referees had an undue influence on the match.

“All we ask for is an even playing field,” said an exasperated Lam. “We had concerns about the appointment of an inexperienced referee, and particularly the touch-judges — one has been dropped by Sanzar and the other has been cut from Australia’s top referee panel.

“We had the ref ears, and the real concern we were getting the whole game was ‘white this, white that’, and not one call was made on the Waratahs. When I reviewed the game, sure enough there wasn’t one.

“I looked at the penalties we gave away through the game, and saw countless examples where they could have been called against the other team, and weren’t. I know this can sound like sour grapes, and we did not lose the game because of that. It just made the challenge a lot harder.”

Lam said he had addressed his concerns with Sanzar referees controller Lyndon Bray as part of the normal review process, and he was confident that it would be dealt with appropriately.

Asked what his main grievances were, Lam made it clear that he believed the officials hadn’t given his side a fair go.

“A lot of things were called up, and a couple of them led to tries. It was things we were called up for and the other team wasn’t.

“We sort of feel like the game was managed by Paul Marks, James Leckie and Phil Waugh,” he added, referring also to the veteran Waratahs skipper.