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Cape Town - Despite their 43-37 win over the Lions, the Crusaders were not happy by the refereeing of South Africa's Stuart Berry.
Berry awarded the Lions 12 penalties against the visitors’ six, with Crusaders forwards coach Dave Hewett calling for a return to neutral referees.
"That's a really important thing," he was quoted as saying by the Stuff.co.nz website.
"The problem that you have is when you get a referee from the city you're playing in, there's a massive crowd influence that comes in.
"They do affect it, it does happen. So neutral referees would take that out of any discussions post-match essentially."
Hewett said it was accepted among visiting teams that you had to allow a "margin for error" from home referees in South Africa.
"It's something that is frustrating from a coaching point of view and can have a massive influence on the game."
After winning both their games in South Africa (against the Sharks and Lions), the Crusaders have headed for Perth where they will tackle the Force this Friday (kick-off 13:00 SA time).
