Former Springbok captain Jean de Villiers says it will be important to see consistency among the top tier of referees at the World Cup in Japan this year.

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Speaking to guests and media at Laureus Sport for Good function at the Southern Sun in Newlands on Wednesday, De Villiers was fielding questions when the topic of potential refereeing mistakes was inevitably raised.

‘Purely because of the human element there will be errors,’ said De Villiers.

‘Players have to make decisions, good or bad, on the field that can turn games and for referees, it’s the same.

‘Sometimes, you know, decisions get made that we don’t understand. All that we, as spectators, can ask for is consistency and the players want it too.

‘The problem comes in when one officiates differently to the other. You get blown up for something one day and the opposing team does the same thing the next time and there’s no problem. So it’s the consistency we want.

‘But you have to understand the human factor of it. Everyone makes mistakes. Players and refs. Hopefully, if a mistake does happen it doesn’t influence the result. You don’t want a team to win a game on the back of a referee’s mistake. It’s unfortunately the nature of the game.

‘Hopefully, we get the rub of the green this time.’

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