The upcoming Lions tour and Tri-Nations series will be spared from the pedantic refereeing that dominated the first two rounds of the Super 12.

Wallaby coach Rod Macqueen returned today from an International Rugby Board conference in London that has cleared the way for a "softening" of some rule interpretations in the Super 12. Macqueen was confident that the same leniency would flow into the international series later this year.

While the wording of any laws was not changed, the meeting agreed that the referees could take a more lenient approach to players failing to stay on their feet at the breakdown. The referees took this approach into last weekend's third round of the Super 12 for immediate rewards.

In previous weeks, referees were following IRB instructions to control play at the breakdown to the letter of the law opening the way for inconsistent interpretations and confused coaches, players and fans.

"I think we have clarified a few issues that were being over-zealously policed and we've already seen a bit of softening of things in the (Super 12) matches on the weekend," Macqueen told AAP. "We are trying to get some uniformity across the board, we agreed we don't want to have different interpretations in the Southern Hemisphere to the Northern Hemisphere."

Macqueen rejected claims by London's Sunday Times newspaper that the meeting was ambushed by Southern Hemisphere delegates or that it was a sign of panic by the same delegates fearing a revival by Northern Hemisphere teams.

"I don't buy into it. It's not the way the conference went. I felt there was a concerted effort by all ... quite frankly sitting in the forum I think everyone spoke very objectively," Macqueen said.

"In those forums the coaches tend to think very much in a similar vein and there isn't really a Northern Hemisphere verus Southern Hemisphere perspective. In fact I think the referees in the Northern Hemisphere were being a little bit more objective and helping the play perhaps more than their Southern Hemisphere counterparts."