The All Blacks won in Cape Town by 17 points. The argument that followed had nothing to do with the scoreline.
New Zealand's 38-21 defeat of the Stormers in the Rugby's Greatest Rivalry tour opener featured three yellow cards for the visitors: Anton Lienert-Brown for a high tackle, Simon Parker for repeated lineout infringements, and Josh Moorby alongside a penalty try. Sir John Kirwan watched it and did not like what he saw from referee Karl Dickson.
"One of the disappointing things for me was the refereeing; for me it was just pedantic. I thought the yellow cards were marginal at best," Kirwan said on the Rugby Rivals podcast. "To play any game with 13 is going to be tough, so I thought the refereeing was poor, and the All Blacks, rightly so, said we need to fix our discipline, and that's true."
He was not letting his own side off.
"You cannot go through a game without that discipline; the discipline in the mid parts of that game will need improving, but I just pray that we don't get referees that pedantic."
Host Ricardo Salizzo pushed back, arguing that heavier TMO involvement is exactly what World Rugby has asked for. "They want the TMO to come in. There was an inside pass that they called back [...] that's what's going to happen, so isn't it on us to be more disciplined?"
"Totally," Kirwan replied. "I said the discipline needs to get better, but what I'm saying is that did you believe there were two yellow cards?"
The Moorby decision was the one that stuck in his throat.
"So the Moorby penalty try and yellow card, for me, that was the most pedantic decision in the game. The reason is rugby is a natural instinct game," Kirwan explained. "No one would have tried not to wrap his arm around to stop a try in goal there. I don't even understand the ruling."
He found an unlikely ally. Springboks lock Victor Matfield, also on the show, has no obvious reason to defend a New Zealand outside back, and went further than Kirwan on the double punishment.
"Why do we have to send the guy off? If he didn't do it, it would have been a try; now he has, so it's a penalty try," Matfield said. "So why do we need to send the guy off? I still don't understand it, I don't know how they got to these rules."
Matfield's broader position was more resigned than Kirwan's. He accepts the direction of travel and wants the process sped up rather than reversed.
"I hate it. But unfortunately, like Ricardo was saying, that's how it's going to be. That's how World Rugby wants the game to be run. We do want the right decisions, so TMOs will get involved," he said. "For me, it's about how quickly they make those decisions [...] but let's get speed into the game. Unfortunately, we're not going to change it."
Kirwan's diagnosis was blunter.
"That's because World Rugby has lost control of what the referees want to do versus what our game wants to do," he said. "It's pedantic. I agree with Victor; you shouldn't send him off. It's a penalty try because it's not malicious. It's not on purpose; we need to start looking at the game from a common sense point of view."
On the Lienert-Brown card, he added: "There was no malice in that tackle from Anton Lienert-Brown; it was a light contact. He was going backwards. The tackled player actually won the advantage line. It's just frustrating."
The timing matters. Matthew Carley takes charge of the All Blacks' tour match against the Sharks in Durban, with Dickson running touch alongside Hollie Davidson. The Tests against the Springboks begin at Ellis Park on August 22, and both camps have spent the tour's opening week talking about cards rather than combinations.
