Writing in the New Zealand Herald, Chris Rattue says some of the refereeing decisions during Fiji's defeat to New Zealand on Friday betrays a bias against the smaller Test-playing nations.
"The Fijians should have been hopping mad after getting belted by the All Blacks.
"Three All Black tries were open to question - not that there is much serious questioning when a Pacific Island country gets a raw deal against a rugby superpower.
"Fiji needed to make Dunedin a battleground by opening a PR war to change the subconscious thinking among referees. The whistlers are conditioned to believe certain teams are better than others and rule accordingly, in a sport where interpretation is nine-tenths of the law.
"Pacific Island teams are stereotyped as poorly disciplined, so penalties and yellow - or even red - cards against them are seen as supporting evidence rather than matters for debate.
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