Joe Jacobs said it best: "We wuz robbed." That was in 1932 when Jack Sharkey beat his 'boy' Max Schmeling when Joe thought the decision was unfair.

We wuz robbed  has echoed and re-echoed around the sporting world, taking various forms but in essence We wuz robbed. It was not a new idea, just succinctly put.

It's not new in rugby. The International Rugby Board was founded because the Scots did not agree that the Irish referee George Scriven was right to award Richard Kindersley's try which won the match for the Sassenachs.

In 1981 South Africa lost all their Tests to the tourists and in 1896 the touring team won the first three. Then they lost the fourth - their first defeat after six victories, and they complained loudly about the decision of Alf Richards which allowed the winning try.

Though they did not know it they were crying We wuz robbed.

This year there has been South African complaint about referees that has approached hysteria.

South Africans went into the Tri-Nations in the expectation of success. The Super 14 and the mid-year Tests suggested that they were kings of the world - World Cup and Tri-Nations champions and kings of the world expecting victory.

Instead they walked into four successive defeats, the first three by big margins. The referees were at fault. Then the South Africans won their fifth match, and there was not a whisper of complaint about the referee, even though he  was from Ireland, a land that bred monsters according to some loud South Africans. It seems that a referee is assessed by the score in the match.

This is relevant in our schools rugby as well. At the extreme end we have had pitch invasions and a physical attack on a referee. Lower down the scale, but often loud we have complaints. Last year Paul Roos beat  Grey College and the complaints about the referee went on and on well into this year. Paul Roos did not complain. this year the boot was on a Grey boot and the complaints in Stellenbosch mouths. Grey did not complain.

Those are only two examples.

The final of the Beeldtrofee for Big Schools was played on Ben Vorster's field in Tzaneen and Ben Vorster won 24-14. Loud was the Helpmekaar We wuz robbed.

The referee was a Tzaneen man, the penalty count against Helpmekaar was even bigger than the penalty count against Grey in 2009 and against Paul Roos in 2010 and, like the fish that got away, it grew bigger.

The Tzaneen report is that adult Helpmekaar supporters went onto the field at the end of the match and said rude things to the referee and also to Ben Vorster supporters. The referee needed an escort to get off the field and was later the subject of threatening phonecalls.

The furore went on, fomented by letters to the press till the chairman of the Blue Bulls' Referees' Society, Gerhard Roodt, offered to examine the DVD of the match.

Roodt, an experienced referee and referees' administrator, who understands the ardent desire to win and the tendency to blame the referee even at the highest level, reported that he went thoroughly through the DVD twice, the second time in slow motion.

Much was made that the referee in question was a local man - which was inevitable for a schools match in such a remote area. But Roodt said that even if a referee had been imported from afar it is likely that the losers would still have complained.

Roodt said that the referee, Jean Aucamp, was a competent referee of eight years' experience, who passed the SARU qualifications to referee with ease - 70% for fitness, 82,5% when assessed and 71% for his examination mark, an exceptionally high mark.

The penalty count had been quoted as 32-6 in favour of Ben Vorster. Roodt's examination of the match came up with the figure 18-13 in favour of Ben Vorster. There is a difference! Roodt concluded that he agreed with almost all the penalty decisions and those he could not confirm were ones he could not see clearly on the DVD>

Roodt's conclusion was that he was satisfied with Aucamp's performance and did not believe that anything the referee had done had influenced the outcome.

Will that change anybody's mind?

Highly unlikely. It's hard to change your mind, especially when it is emotion charged. But people should be careful of their behaviour. It's not good when adults behave worse than children and set a bad example. Players are required to exercise control on the field;  spectators - including coaches - should do the same off the field.

However important the match may seem at the time, it is really trivial in the great scheme of things. Isn't it sad that sport, which should bring people together, should become a cause of bitter division? When that happens there are no winners - only losers.