I think CJ took the view that McCaw had his hands on the player, not the ball, when the ruck formed; and the ruck when formed did not include him - no-one bound onto him. Does he not in those circumstances have to go back around?
I thought his hands were clearly and obviously on the ball.
CJ signalled side entry. It is a fact that no tackle was made (it is undeniable that the blue player went to ground without a hand being laid on him). No tackle means no gate, so where does the side entry come from?
Also, if no player bound him into the ruck, who turned him upside down, the tooth fairy?
What CJ could in any event have blown for was a red hand scooping the ball back into the immediately preceding ruck; pause at 4:08 and the ball is between the blue player's feet, and there's a red player kneeling on the ground (with a thigh bandage) below him. Red player has quite clearly got his left arm stuck out with his hand beyond the ball - that hand comes down on the ball and pulls it back into the ruck. PK?
While that may be true, two wrongs don't make a right. If a referee misses a PK for something, he can't just balance it by making up another PK out of whole cloth. Besides the earlier PK would have been marked a couple of metres further back, and possibly out of the kicker's range.
I don't have a problem with losing the match, I just think the way the game was decided with a dodgy PK is not good enough at the top levels of the game. A player who does something according to the Laws of the Game should reasonably expect not to be penalised. An Elite referee ought to be able to tell the difference between a player going to ground of his own accord and one who is brought to ground by an opponent.
I will also reiterate AGAIN, in case you and others missed it, that the Crusaders had the winning of this game, leading with less than four minutes on the clock, but but they chose twice to kick away possession instead of holding onto the ball. They put themselves in a position where it became possible for a referee's clanger to take the game away from them. They only have themselves to blame for that.