HISTORY has repeated itself – another Wales-New Zealand clash has ended in a massive controversy.

In 1978 the infamous dive out of the line-out by All Blacks lock Andy Haden ended with English referee Roger Quittenton awarding a penalty which full back Brian McKechnie kicked to give his side a 13-12 victory.

And on Saturday South African referee Craig Joubert, 32 today, was embroiled in another controversial incident when he failed to even penalise New Zealand outside half Dan Carter for a high tackle on Wales replacement scrum half Martin Roberts.

Carter later apologised to Roberts for the tackle, but was yesterday cited over the incident. He will face a disciplinary hearing in Milan today.

It led to a furious exchange between the rival camps, Wales claiming the All Black superstar should have been yellow carded, but Joubert’s inaction robbed Wales of the opportunity to end their 56-year losing streak against their biggest southern hemisphere rivals.

Wales head coach Warren Gatland stormed: “He should have been sin-binned, it was a head high tackle and a swinging arm and it should have been three points to us.”

Forthright Wales assistant coach Shaun Edwards said: “We should have been playing against 14 men for the last ten minutes. It was clear for all to see, it had nothing to do with psychology, I’ve seen players sidelined for that or sent off.”

Gatland, who was also unhappy about a deliberate knock-on verdict against Martyn Williams, added: “Referees don’t want to be involved in upsets, but we just want a fair share of the calls.”

But opposite number Graham Henry, formerly in charge of Wales, claimed Carter’s tackle wasn’t high at all.

“It’s a bit of a stretch to say we should have been reduced to 14 men because of a high tackle,” he said.

“I just saw it at the moment, he hit him around the chest and the guy ducked under it. Until you see it a couple of times you can’t really take a view on that. Let’s leave it at that shall we?”

But the controversy wouldn’t go away and when Henry was informed that Gatland believed the All Blacks were refereed differently from anyone else he retorted: “That’s complete rubbish. That’s a huge stretch and I don’t think Warren believes that. He may have said it, but he says lots of things.”