Not a Rugby World Cup goes by without some referee finding themselves in the unwanted spotlight. For whatever reason, some team usually exits the tournament feeling aggrieved. This time it was Scotland, and their loss to Australia highlights the inconsistency of the laws of rugby.

I am not happy for the way Scotland missed out on making the semifinals, but I am glad we have highlighted something that is just so important and which can no longer be ignored.

This is just Scotland's time. They're going to have to feel the pain, that's just the way it goes. In 2007 it was the All Blacks' time, in 2011 it was South Africa's time, and you look at what happened with the referees concerned, Wayne Barnes, Bryce Lawrence and now Craig Joubert. They are all very good referees and you can go back earlier than that to Paddy O'Brien in 1999.

Rugby by its nature is imperfect. The laws are untidy and I have heard top referees say that they might get as many as 20% of the decisions they make wrong. That is way too high because those wrong decisions can have consequences. As all Scotland, New Zealand and South Africa will attest.

The breakdown is a mess, and a referee can make a decision on one thing he sees but he may have missed something else a moment earlier.

The breakdown is hotly contested, and referees often can blow any number of penalties.© MARTIN BUREAU/AFP/Getty Images

We need to simplify the laws. They are way too complicated. After this World Cup is completed, we really need to look at the laws of rugby and simplify them.

The easiest place to start is the scrum. Can you imagine if the World Cup final is decided on a scrum penalty and, when taken away and analysed after the fact, just as happened with Joubert's decision against Scotland, and World Rugby announces that it wasn't the player who was penalised who was at fault, it was the guy he was marking? It is an absolute farce that these sorts of things can decide such important games of rugby.

I know Scotland won't be happy. But they have to soak this one up, take it on the chin. No-one likes to hear the losing team bitch afterwards, and we've all experienced that frustration, but we need now to see every other country acknowledge the situation has to be sorted out.

Australia got the benefit of the decision at Twickenham, but I think reality will hit home when they meet Argentina; I am picking Argentina to make their first final.

Argentina bullied Ireland at the breakdown. Even with Australia having David Pocock and Michael Hooper to call on, Argentina have a good way of combating them. The Pumas fly big men into that breakdown and they are very, very physical. If you don't get on the ball you are going to take a skid because they hit you hard. Argentina also played with a lot more composure against Ireland. They are getting better, and feeling better, and they are a confidence team. If they get something good go their way early they just lift.

Argentina bullied Ireland at the tackle and at the breakdown.© Phil Walter/Getty Images

So far as the All Blacks' win over France was concerned, I felt there was something coming in the manner of their build-up. All the worriers who live in New Zealand found that a lot of people were waiting for that game. They desperately wanted that situation to happen, me being one of them, and I agree that you don't just make it right, you smash it right. You do it 10 times better just to get it right.

I can imagine the team talk would have been a case of 'Let's go' after all the build-up, planning and preparation for that game. They wouldn't have needed a team talk really; it was what they had been thinking about since 2007.

I just thought they were outstanding from one to 23. They made a statement. I think there were two scrums in the first half, and that demonstrated the high skill level that was set. It was the 25-30th minute of the game before we had a scrum. There were just no mistakes. They couldn't have made a better statement.

You don't want to single players out but Brodie Retallick, Dane Coles, Richie McCaw were all great. Jerome Kaino produced what he did in 2011, and what he is known for. He showed that all he needed was a mental tune-up.

Now it is game on with South Africa. We know our old foe, and they know us. There is no gap between New Zealand and South Africa, the history of the contests shows that. This is another World Cup final; forget about the final next week, this is someone's final and it is going to be a huge game.

It will be an arm wrestle. South Africa will go back to what they are good at. They'll put real pressure on the breakdown. They'll put their big men in there to fly into the All Blacks. It will be the same old story, they will try to out-muscle us. And that is South Africa's strength.

South Africa are playing traditional, physical Springboks rugby.© Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty Images

Their attempts to play the expansive game have come up short, but they do have dangerous players like Handre Pollard, Damian de Allende and Jesse Kriel in midfield. This is the making of the Springboks. Whatever happens in the game, and for South Africa in the World Cup, they are looking good for 2016, 2017, 2018 and beyond to the next World Cup. They've also got talent coming through. We've seen that with the South African Under-20s in the past couple of years, and they're about to unleash some real talent on the world stage.

From New Zealand's perspective, there are two more games. There's a lot of players in the team who have got too much to lose and who won't be looking to take the foot off the pedal. We've learned previously in World Cups that they should forget about the final. They should just concentrate on the semi-final. This is everything. The final will look after itself. With the attrition rate from all the other teams, you don't know who is going to be playing.

You see someone like Joe Moody running out there, and I think he did himself real justice in an All Blacks jersey. He was playing ITM Cup two weeks ago and that is just the nature of attrition rates at Rugby World Cups; more than likely he is going to be starting this weekend.

Joe Moody played strongly off the bench against France, just two weeks after playing ITM Cup rugby with Christchurch.© Franck Fife/AFP/Getty Images

And you can be lucky to make the final, as we've seen in South Africa in 1995 and New Zealand in 2011; South Africa just got over France in their 1995 semi-final in the rain in Durban, while France in 2011 lost to the All Blacks and Tonga in pool play. But things change when you make the final. In a final, you could die for the cause out on the field. All your thoughts are geared towards laying your body on the line for your country, your teammates and for yourself. There's no regard for your own body, you just go out there and leave everything on the park. It's the biggest stage you are ever going to play on. And a semi-final is no different unless you haven't quite got your eye on the moment. Any team playing against the All Blacks is not worried about next week. This game is everything. So we have got to have the same mindset.

It's all about us. The three losses New Zealand have had in the past three years came down to the team not being mentally attuned for the game. You can pull out a million clichés but the simple fact is second chances at World Cups do not come around.