It's official. Wallabies winger Drew Mitchell should not have been sent off against the All Blacks.

In a revelation that will incense the Wallabies, IRB referees boss Paddy O'Brien admitted as much on Wednesday after South African touch judge Cobus Wessels was stood down from Saturday's return Bledisloe Cup Test in Christchurch.

Wessels has been axed for his recommendation that Mitchell be sinbinned for a first half "late and dangerous tackle" in last Saturday's 49-28 win by the All Blacks - a mistake with big ramifications.

Scrutiny of match footage not shown on the night revealed that ruling to be well wide of the mark, according to O'Brien.

Mitchell went on to be shown a second yellow card for slowing down play after halftime, resulting in an automatic sending off which cost Australia sorely in defence.

New Zealander O'Brien said the alleged tackle by Mitchell on All Blacks captain Richie McCaw was at the minor end of the scale and Wessels had paid the price for his over-reaction.

"If anything, it's lucky to be a penalty," O'Brien said.

"McCaw offloads as he's about to collide with Drew Mitchell, who puts his hands out and pushes him away. So there's no way it's a yellow card offence.

"As a result of that, with the second yellow, Australia went without a player for 30 minutes and that just shouldn't have happened."

O'Brien said Wessels also called an All Blacks lineout throw not straight late in the Test when it was clearly down the middle.

"Assistant referees, we encourage them to intervene in the game but they've got to get it right. There were two decisions made which we felt weren't up to the standard required.

"Cobus has been very understanding, he admits that he got it wrong and we're not going to hang him out to dry. He's got to go away and think about that, referee the Currie Cup and hopefully learn a lesson from it."

Wessels, who will now be the television match official on Saturday, will be replaced on the touch line by New Zealander Keith Brown.

O'Brien said another neutral official, who had to be from South Africa, wouldn't have arrived until Thursday night so agreement from Tri-Nations governing body Sanzar to appoint a home town official was sought and given.

Meanwhile, O'Brien defended the refereeing trend this season that has seen a proliferation of yellow and red cards, causing consternation from some teams and supporters.

O'Brien said attention should fall on the actions of the players, not the officials.

"We make no apologies for it. We're very tough on dangerous tackles, especially tip tackles," he said.

"This is the shop window of rugby so we can't have third grade players running around in club rugby tipping someone in the air and putting them down with legs above the horizontal.

"And there's no excuses for the headbutting and the other things that have happened."

However, O'Brien suggested officials overstepped on occasion in what was a difficult area to adjudicate.

"There are concerns that there have been a couple of yellows where the referees have been over-zealous. The game is still a contact sport so we just want the referees to be accurate when it comes to what is foul play and what is hard rugby."

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