World rugby's governing body has defended South African referee Jonathan Kaplan's handling of England's Six Nations defeat by Wales and slammed accusations of bias from the English camp.

In a statement released on Thursday, the International Rugby Board described comments made by England attack coach Brian Smith as "unwarranted" and categorically dismissed his claim that Kaplan's performance at the Millennium Stadium had been influenced by the Wales management.

A statement said: "The official performance review of the Wales versus England match at the Millennium Stadium ranks Kaplan's overall performance as high and the IRB is satisfied that Kaplan followed the correct protocol for addressing both teams on and off the field and dealt with England and Wales in a fair and professional manner and refereed what was in front of him.

"An official process exists for Unions to give feedback to the IRB on refereeing performances. IRB Referee Manager Paddy O'Brien and the RFU Elite Rugby Director Rob Andrew shared a very positive meeting on Monday, which makes the timing of the comments regrettable and unfortunate."

Around the same time that Andrew was attending the meeting with O'Brien, Smith was telling journalists that he felt Kaplan had been Wales's 16th man.

"His (Kaplan's) whole demeanour through that match, the way he addressed our team in the changing room beforehand - he had clearly had heaps of pressure put on by Wales," Smith said.

"The way our team was addressed prior to the Wales game took me a little bit by surprise. It was clear to me that Wales had done their job in terms of getting stuck into the referee."

Wales beat England 23-15 and there has been speculation that Smith's comments, rather than being an attack on Kaplan, were designed to put pressure on another South African official, Craig Joubert, who will take charge of the Ireland v England match in Dublin on Saturday.

England's management and players feel they are being stereotyped by officials as a side lacking discipline and believe that contributed to Kaplan sin-binning Mike Tindall and Andy Goode during the Wales match.

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