Referee Alain Rolland was wrong not to allow Australia to make a late substitution and finish their match against South Africa with 15 men, the International Rugby Board (IRB) said hours after backing the officials' original decision.
The wounded Wallabies played the final minutes of their 31-8 defeat in Pretoria on Saturday with 14 men after they made all their substitutions early in a physical clash that resulted in five of their players being forced off with injury.
Irish official Rolland blocked the Australians from replacing injured hooker Tatafu Polota-Nau with Saia Fainga'a in the 66th minute saying the Wallabies had made all seven replacements.
The match was delayed for several minutes as Rolland explained his decision to irate Wallaby officials before play was resumed and Springbok wing Bryan Habana took advantage of the extra space to score his third try of the game.
"The referee was correct," the Dublin-based IRB's James Fitzgerald told Australia's Fairfax media on Wednesday only for the sport's world governing body to issue a statement later to say Rolland was wrong.
"Following an initial review, the five-strong match official team acknowledges that they failed to recognise Law 3.12 (Exception 2) when managing a substitution in the 66th minute, which meant that Australia finished the match with 14 players," the statement said.
The confusion appeared to centre on prop Benn Robinson who had been substituted but then came back on the field after his replacement Ben Alexander was injured leaving the Wallabies with one technical substitution remaining, the IRB said.
