Rob Houwing, Sport24 chief writer

Cape Town – The issue of merit-based versus neutral refereeing has bubbled throughout the Vodacom Super 14 in 2010 … and it has only intensified ahead of Saturday’s semi-finals.

If overseas media reports this week are to be believed, the Stormers could reap the “benefits” of an all-South African panel of officials for the game against the Waratahs at Newlands, while the Crusaders may gain some satisfaction, conversely, from Australian Stuart Dickinson holding the whistle in their tie against the Bulls at Orlando Stadium.

Generally, the view from the non-South African regions in the SANZAR alliance appears to be that, of the two teams who have made the gruelling journey at short notice to these shores, the Crusaders have a better chance of upsetting defending champions the Bulls than the Waratahs do of seeing off the Stormers.

The fact that the Bulls will not be at their more familiar Loftus stronghold, coupled with that perceived South African nemesis Dickinson’s handling of the fixture, have been suggested as factors likely to lift Richie McCaw’s side.

David Leggat wrote in the New Zealand Herald: “This game isn’t going to be at the Afrikaner citadel (Loftus), populated by all those large men, and women, wearing blue horns as if at a fancy dress party with a theme which never changes.

“The Bulls won’t get their usual rabidly passionate support (in Soweto); the visitors won’t feel the naked hostility quite so sharply. You must give the Crusaders a decent chance of upsetting the Bulls.

“What I wouldn’t fancy being next weekend is a Waratah, having to go to Cape Town to play the Stormers, and with an all-South African mob running the show.

“Mark Lawrence is refereeing, Marius Jonker and Cobus Wessels are running the touchlines and Shaun Veldsman is on the organ (the television match official) upstairs.

“Merit-based appointments are fine and Lawrence is fairly capable. Let’s leave the ratings at that. But you’d think a touch of neutrality at such a delicate stage of the competition would have been the appropriate call.”

Spiro Zavos of the Sydney Morning Herald, meanwhile, concurred on several points: “There is the possibility that the Bulls machine might not be as intimidating and as efficient away from their home ground. The referee for the match, too, is Australian.

“The Waratahs, on the other hand, will have to adjust to (a) South African referee.

“This business of what the New Zealand newspapers are calling ‘home-town’ referees is a difficult area. In my opinion, there have been too many dodgy decisions under this system, which was brought in last year to justify SANZAR’s confidence in its fairness.”

One thing both writers may have overlooked , and the Bulls may gain some comfort from, is that levels of public contempt for Dickinson in this country have dropped fairly dramatically in recent years, while South African Super 14 franchises have also had fewer reasons to whinge about his officiating.

The softening in attitude may have begun when Dickinson, as TMO in the 2007 World Cup final, ruled that England back Mark Cueto’s foot had made contact with the touchline as he “scored” a try in the low-scoring showpiece against the Springboks in Paris.