Richard Loe: Awful referee should be frog marched

Marcos Ayerza of Argentina is tackled by Ben Smith of the All Blacks. Photo / Getty Images

Before we start, I know I've banged on about refs recently but, really, that was bloody awful last night.

For French referee Pascal Gauzere and his assistants not to award the Leonardo Senatore try and miss Julian Savea getting tackled without the ball is a disgrace.

Anyway, now that's out of my system, I thought Argentina were solid but sometimes let down by their loose forwards. They tended to be second to the breakdown and became a disruptive rather than constructive influence in the contest. The mindset seems to be about interference rather than winning ball.

Compare that to the All Blacks who hit and try to go over rather than swivel and fall to the side. It's about self-control and how you're brought up to play.

The Pumas have to be more precise, especially when their tight five work so hard in the scrums.

Their scrum was solid but I think the All Blacks were prepared for that onslaught. It's a major part of the Argentine game but they were well contained and couldn't set the platform they needed.

Occasionally they got the better of the All Blacks but, conversely, we put down some good scrums, especially on our ball. An example was the 9-8 try with Kieran Read feeding Aaron Smith.

To pull a move like that, you don't necessarily need a great scrum but you definitely need a steady one.

In the All Blacks pack, Dane Coles and Jeremy Thrush had fine games, especially with the latter coming on early for Sam Whitelock.

The group I was watching the game with said, 'ooh, Thrush' rather nervously when he came on but he's a tradesman and wasn't going to let his team-mates down.

Those were conditions he was well capable of handling and I thought his experience helped. Other locking candidates such as Dominic Bird and Patrick Tuipulotu aren't quite at that stage.

Coles keeps getting better every test. The only thing I'd stress, and I keep saying this, is that the selectors need to find another young hooker to be his understudy.

Speaking of understudies, Beauden Barrett was smooth transitioning into the starting role at No10. His grubber kicks were useful and he set up that cracking try for Messam before halftime. The only downside was his goalkicking.

We don't know the instructions of the All Blacks coaching panel but it seemed Barrett and Israel Dagg tried to get into the game as much as possible as 'new boys' in the starting XV.

How often did we see the pair of them -- and Savea -- do something either collectively or individually compared to Ma'a Nonu and Conrad Smith? The experienced midfielders were hardly seen.