New Zealand coach Steve Hansen has leapt to the defence of Rugby World Cup match officials by claiming that mistakes are simply a part of the game.

The comments follow referee Craig Joubert's blunder last week which cost Scotland a place in the semi-finals of the competition.

Joubert was publicly blamed by World Rugby for wrongly awarding Australia a penalty in the dying stages of their narrow 35-34 triumph over the Dark Blues at Twickenham.

Others have also come in for criticism throughout the tournament, but Hansen insists that being on the receiving end of a bad call is part and parcel of rugby union.

"The referees make mistakes. As long as they take a breath, they will make them, because players do and coaches do," he is quoted as saying by The Guardian. "So if you can accept that, the best way to avoid that mistake being the game-winning mistake, for want of a better term, is to make sure you are in front by enough for it not to be.

"Quite often, when a mistake is made and it's right at the end of the game, it's obvious for everyone to see and we get carried away with it. Sometimes [referees] make mistakes at the beginning of the game that have a massive effect on the result, but no-one sees them because they are not caught in the emotion of that last penalty goal or whatever it might have been.

"I've always said it is a really tough game to referee at the moment, and we've got to find ways of making it simpler for them to get that right. I know you are alluding to Joubert but I don't think it's Craig that is the problem but the system."

Joubert has been overlooked for this weekend's semi-final matches as a result of his high-profile error.