But O’Sullivan rates Kaplan highly and is more than happy with the way he handles high-profile matches.

“I am very happy with Jonathan Kaplan,” said O’Sullivan.

“We have had a him a few times. We had him in the first game of the Rugby World Cup against Romania and I thought he did a very good job.

“We had him in the Grand Slam game against England. It was a huge pressure game at Lansdowne Road and he had a fine game.

“I believe he is one of the top three refs in the world at the moment, for two reasons – his consistency of interpretation and his ability to communicate to the players around him.

“You know where you stand all the time with him and that is what players want in high pressure situations.”

That is just the officiating skipper Keith Wood appreciates after New Zealand referee Paddy O’Brien appeared to struggle to regulate the scrums during the 17-16 defeat to Australia.

Both O’Sullivan and Wallabies coach Eddie Jones criticised some of O’Brien’s decisions and Wood fears that unless referees get to grips with the scrum it will become sanitised and end up like the no-contest rugby league version.

“The scrum is an integral part of the game. The scrum is fantastic. We probably need to get to a situation where the refereeing of it is sharper,” said Wood.

“It has to be integral, there have to be meaningful scrums, there has to be contact, there has to be a full, even battle.

“That is very, very important for the game. It marks it out as a game for all body shapes.”