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McAlister sees red

McAlister: A mixed day for the binned All Black

Luke McAlister believes he didn't deserve to be sent to the sin bin in the second half of New Zealand's epic quarter-final defeat against France.

McAlister was shown a yellow card in the 46th minute for supposedly impeding opposite number Yannick Jauzion from chasing through on a chip kick.

It was the 100th yellow card issues in World Cup history and one that had a huge effect on the game. McAlister disputed that the card was warranted and was forced to watch as France took control whilst he was off.

"When they got the try it was hard to watch," McAlister told NZPA.

"I thought it was pretty harsh to be honest. I was just holding my ground. I didn't go out of my way to take him out in any bad manner. I just held my line and he ran into me."

McAlister had another disagreement with young English referee Wayne Barnes in the dying minutes when he unsuccessfully attempted a dropped goal from nearly 50m out.

"We had the advantage, the ref had his arm out so I just thought I would have a stab at it, thinking that we would come back for the advantage. But obviously he thought the advantage was over," he said.

"You can't have any regrets.

"We are not a team to sit back, we are an attacking team. We felt pretty confident that we could get the try. The forwards were playing really well, picking and going, but it didn't come off for us."

McAlister had a rollercoaster game which ended at fly-half when both Daniel Carter and his replacement Nick Evans left the game with injuries in the second half.

"I am just gutted really. We have worked so hard and to fail like that is hard to take," he said.

"I didn't feel it slipping away at all. Throughout the whole game we were calm, relaxed, right through to the last whistle."