THE Rugby World Cup has been blighted by several factors but arguably the most worrying for the International Board is the deplorable standard of refereeing. The litany of errors by officials at the 1999 finals beggars belief and will promote renewed calls for recourse to television replays to sort out controversial incidents, ala Rugby League.

Jim Fleming's performance yesterday was little short of a disgrace, an 11-2 first half in favour of New Zealand needing no elaboration. He almost ruined what was potentially a wonderful clash between France and New Zealand with the inconsistency of his refereeing.

He compounded his whistle happy officiousness by a crass mistake with relation to an incident late in the first half. New Zealand's Jeff Wilson was seen to ground the ball short of his line, the ball went loose over the line and both Jonah Lomu and Olivier Magne dived for the loose ball. Television replays could not determine which of the two players got the conclusive touch.

Fleming amazingly awarded a 22 drop out. The bile the crowd directed at the Scottish official at half-time must have affected Fleming for in the second half he proved far more sympathetic towards the French.