Will Tappe Henning's neutral refs move help SA teams forget URC whistle troubles?

Will one of South Africa's most accomplished and popular former referees' intervention lead to turnaround in local franchise's fortunes with the whistle in the United Rugby Championship (URC)?

That's one of the intriguing questions to emerge from Tappe Henning's decision - as the URC's new head of referees - to appoint neutral officials for the batch of fixtures, scheduled for next month, where the Bulls, Sharks, Lions and Stormers will finally face overseas opposition at home.

The move is designed to help the South African teams get a grip on the perceived difference in philosophies of referees in the southern and northern hemisphere, which was a particularly painful problem for them on their opening tours to the UK and Europe last year.

"The two biggest drivers in referee appointments are neutrality and merit, and a balance needs to be found between the two," said Henning in explaining his decision.

READ | Tappe Henning appointed head of refs for URC

It's undeniably also a good one in terms of moving towards a situation where all cross-country matches are officiated by neutral refs as there have been complaints of "hometown" bias wherever those games have been played previously.

Henning, a 14-Test referee, however, insisted that there aren't really fundamental contrasts to how the game is adjudicated in the two hemispheres, merely what areas are focused on.

But since his appointment he's been keen to drive home the point to his whistle blowers that they need to be adaptable and allow all teams to play the type of games that they have been working on.

"There is a difference in the focus areas of the game and that determines how the game is played," he said."A big driver for me is to make referees understand they need to allow