Romain Poite, the most influential Frenchman since Inspector Clouseau

IF Wallabies fans were dismayed by the whistle-happy performance of referee Jaco Peyper last weekend, they will be equally alarmed to hear that Frenchman Romain Poite is in charge of Saturday’s Bledisloe Cup return bout in Auckland.

Poite controlled last year’s big third Test defeat to the British & Irish Lions in a game in which the Wallabies front row was hammered by the referee.

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Lions prop Alex Corbisiero was awarded man of the match for his dominant scrum display in the 41-16 thrashing, and after honours were shared in last weekend’s scrum against the All Blacks at ANZ Stadium, the Wallabies will be hoping Poite isn’t overly tough on their engagement and feed.

The first Bledisloe Test descended into a dour draw as the rain-soaked spectacle was stifled by Peyper, who blew 23 penalties and four free-kicks while issuing two yellow cards to the All Blacks.

With a forecast for clear day in Auckland for Saturday’s game at Eden Park, Poite should be under pressure from officials to limit his whistling and let the game flow as southern hemisphere spectators demand.

Poite earned global headlines during last year’s Rugby Championship when he sin-binned South African hooker Bismark du Plessis for an innocuous shoulder on All Blacks superstar Dan Carter, and both he and the IRB conceded the decision was wrong in retrospect.

But while the Wallabies showed in the 12-12 draw last weekend that they have made some significant strides, the regard for their scrum is a week-to-week proposition.

Following the disaster in the final Lions match, the Wallaby scrum made good strides in the Rugby Championship.

However, in their opening match against England at Twickenham on the spring tour last November, referee George Clancy blew several scrum penalties against Australia, leading coach Ewen McKenzie to address his concerns to the IRB that perception was influencing poor decisions by match officials against his side.

Meanwhile, the All Blacks resisted the opportunity to have a dig at Peyper, who sin-binned prop Wyatt Crockett correctly, but also yellow-carded Beaden Barrett for an unclear infringement.

“I think sometimes the team that has momentum perhaps gets the rub of the green, in the first 30 minutes we got that, and then when you’re under the pump, we were guilty of trying to force things a bit rather than backing our defence,” All Blacks captain Richie McCaw said.

“There were some decisions that, because we were on the back foot, went against us. That’s the nature of it.”

“We need to be a little bit smarter at times, especially when we’re under the pump, that we don’t give the ref an opportunity to make decisions that makes it worse.”

Kiwi coach Steve Hansen added: “At the end of the day, probably the guy that’s got the toughest job in rugby union at the moment is the ref.”

“It’s become, rapidly, a speed game, especially when you get two sides like these [All Blacks and Wallabies] who want to play the game, it’s played at 100 miles per hour, he’s trying to make decisions on a whole lot of things, and when you see them later on TV it’s pretty clear-cut, yes he got that right or no he didn’t get that right.”

“There’s no point getting too bothered by it.”

“You’ve just got to deal with it on the night. If you dominate the game and go forward, usually you’re on the right end of it.”