Obstructed.

Once again France vs the All Blacks was overshadowed by a controversial refereeing decision this weekend, as New Zealand made it the perfect series with a 49-14 win to finish 3-0.

The first Test saw France receive a harsh yellow card, while the All Blacks escaped a potential red for high challenge on Remy Grosso, while last week saw Les Blue receive a controversial red card that was later rescinded.

And then on Saturday, in the third and final Test, referee John Lacey found himself poorly positioned alongside a scrum that resulted in him blocking France scrumhalf Baptise Serin from making a tackle on Damian McKenzie, and allowing the outhalf to score under the posts.

“It seems quite clear and quite straightforward that if a player or referee should obstruct a play and it disadvantages one team or the other, then it needs to be accounted for and dealt with,” France head coach Jacques Brunel said after the game.

Serin meanwhile insists he would have made the tackle if Lacey wasn’t in the way.

“I would have tackled [McKenzie],” he insisted.

All Blacks boss Steve Hansen was of course his typical bullish self after the game, noting there was no actual law broken.

“There’s nowhere in the rule book that says the referee can cause obstruction,” Hansen said

“He’s got to stand somewhere and it’s not our fault that our guy ran close to where he was standing. It’s happened to us a few times in the past.

I think people are clutching at straws there. What do they want him to do? Click his fingers and disappear?”