SANZAR refereeing officials have all but accepted responsibility for the Brumbies loss to the Bulls in round ten after they labelled CJ Stander's try a "stone-cold mistake".
SANZAR game manager Lyndon Bray said the Bulls' second try by CJ Stander was awarded in error as all three South African officials, referee Marius Jonker and assistant referees Lourens van der Merwe and Stefan Breytenbach all missed a blatant knock on from Bulls fly half Morne Steyn.
Immediately after the knock on everyone stopped and waited for a whistle but after a pause Stander ran on to score the Bulls' second try.
The incident is yet another blow for SANZAR who, to the annoyance of many fans, appoint match officials based on merit instead of nationality which leaves officials open to criticism of bias.
"That particular error is just a stone-cold mistake," Bray said.
"He's just got to put his hand up and say 'we got it completely wrong'.
"That was between the assistant referee and the referee and that cost seven points.
"And that probably colours the overall view of the performance because of that mistake."
Aside from the incorrectly awarded try Coach White has asked SANZAR to explain why Jonker blew so many penalties in favour of the home side.
The Brumbies outscored the Bulls by five tries to two but lost the match 36-34 which has led to Brumbies coach Jake White openly questioning the penalty count of 14 to 6 to the Bulls.
Bulls fly half Steyn kicked six penalties for a total of 18 points in penalties compared to Brumbies fly half Christian Lealiifano's 3 points from penalties.
"I need to know what we have done wrong or what we need to change," White told AAP.
"It's like any feedback - it's very hard to start changing things if everything I see is OK."
Despite the blatant mistake by Jonker SANZAR have continued to back and said that while some were "quite harsh", the Brumbies were clearly under increased pressure while in defence.
Bray and White will speak further about the match before the Brumbies play the Lions this weekend.
