All Blacks assistant coach Wayne Smith would like to see two refs on the pitch © Getty Images

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Players/Officials: Wayne Smith

Tournaments/Tours: Tri Nations

Teams: New Zealand

All Blacks assistant coach Wayne Smith has thrown his support behind the idea of there being two referees on the field during Test matches.

Smith believes that attacking from deep is becomingly increasingly difficult in the modern game, primarily because players have become so adept at taking up offside positions without attracting the attention of the man in the middle.

As a result, Smith believes that the presence of a second official on the field of play would resolve this problem, thus affording players more time and space in which to operate.

When asked whether two referees would make the game more entertaining, Smith replied: "I think it would. They (the International Rugby Board) have been bold in looking at ELVs (Experimental Law Variations) and I think as things progress and modernise I am sure something like that will be trialled somewhere."

Smith also argued that referees were failing to enforce the rule change which states that players must respect a perceived ten-metre line right across the field from the kick receiver until put onside by the chasing kicker.

"I don't think that law has been applied very well," Smith told the New Zealand Herald.

However, despite his frustration with numerous aspects of match officiating, Smith insisted that referee Alain Rolland's treatment of the All Blacks in last weekend's clash with South Africa was no excuse for their defeat in Bloemfontein.

"There is always a wee bit of interpretation but the laws are black and white. You have got the choice as to whether you infringe or not and we infringed, sometimes stupidly, on the weekend. We have got to put that right, it is nothing to do with the referee."