While there are options for when the ball or a player carrying the ball touches the referee, there is nothing in the law book covering the situation where a player considers the referee has impaired his ability to carry out his intended action.
With thirty players on the field, and sometimes high concentrations of players in a small area, there will inevitably be occasions in any game of rugby when the referee wishes he would rather be in a different position.
Sometimes play goes in the opposite direction from what the players' positioning seems to be indicating to the referee.
Maybe a halfback or receiver at a tackle, ruck or maul, suddenly changes his mind and passes the ball right into the path of the referee, who is moving on his way to the anticipated next phase of play.
Some observers think Smith realised where the referee was positioned and deliberately chose the path that he took.
He wouldn't be the first player to try and use the referee as a shield – some local players are masters at it and not surprisingly they usually wear the number nine on their jerseys too.
The other point which occurred to me was that even if the referee wasn't in the picture, the All Blacks should have scored because the French halfback would have been forced to choose which of the two players to tackle, therefore one or the other All Black would have been in the clear.
Later in the game, the referee awarded Shannon Frizzell a try after saying he had seen a "clear grounding".
But the TMO begged to differ and was unable to find clear evidence of a grounding on the video footage. So Frizzell was denied a try on debut.
Israel Folau's aerial skills were again on display across the Tasman and he ended up with a yellow card for what Benjamin Fall received a red for the week before.
In this case both players went to the air to contest the ball in what appeared to be a good contest for the ball.
But Falou seemed to actually drape his arm around the Irishman which led to him crashing back down to the ground on his back so a card of one colour or the other seemed inevitable and warranted.
Folau has received a further one match suspension for his actions but I would be surprised if the Australians don't appeal that decision, given the state of chaos which seems to exist around this area in World Rugby Inc these days.
That game also ended in an anticlimax which almost descended into farce when the Australians demanded at least a penalty (but better still, a yellow card) for what they perceived to have been a deliberate knock-on by an Irish defender close to his goal line.
Numerous video replays and several minutes later the match officials decided there was no clear evidence of a knock on, let alone a deliberate one, and the referee blew for fulltime in front of a stunned David Pocock.
The referee is the sole arbitrator of fact during a game of rugby.
Sometimes he may get the facts wrong and without the "benefit" of television footage, players simply have to accept decisions in good grace and hope they don't get the rough end of the stick more often than they get the smooth during a game.
But with the introduction of the Television Match Official (TMO) and television replays, some referees seem unable to make critical decisions without reference to television technology.
Yes, you can use technology to try and get every critical decision correct but, ultimately, it should be up to the referee to make the final decision.
And if it is in variance to what the technology shows (or does not show) and he has seen a clear grounding, he should stick with that decision.
Having said that, if a referee is unsure what has happened, the safest thing to do is restart play with a scrum, with the team last in possession putting the ball in.
In the six test matches here and in Australia, there seem to have been more than one occasion when the referee has been "thrown under the bus" by the actions of either TMOs or the powers-that-be in World Rugby.
Is it any wonder then that recruiting new referees to replace those of us who are, in the words of NZRU community rugby's Buck Anderson, "pale, male and stale", is becoming an ever-increasing mountain to climb?
