Tough call...South Sydney coach John Lang (L) and footage of one of the contraversial calls made by Shayne Hayne (R). Source: The Sunday Telegraph

Maintaining the rage felt by all Rabbitohs supporters - and veteran coach John Lang - after their 16-13 loss to St George Illawarra on Friday night, Richardson said the two-referee system had failed since its inception.

"This is a decision which was supported not overall. But for the support it got, sometimes you make mistakes and this is one of them," Richardson said. "I never voted in favour of two referees and I still don't believe in two referees today.

"[On Friday night] there was only one referee. [Shayne] Hayne refereed the game, the other guy might as well not have been there. It's just a fact. One referee may as well be carrying a water bottle.

"I don't think the refereeing has significantly improved since having two referees and I'm not sure why we've got them.

"Let's just admit it, let's get on with one referee as it's been for a long long period of time - as it is in soccer, and it is everywhere else in the world in different sports."

Richardson's comments emerged as The Sunday Telegraph also learned:

* Lang, one of the most respected figures in the game, spent yesterday highlighting the referee blunders he intends to raise with referees boss Robert Finch;

* Finch denied Lang's claims that referees were rewarding coaches who used bullying tactics against match officials; and

* Rabbitohs centre Beau Champion declared Lang had the players' full support.

After going down to the Dragons, Lang suggested NRL boss David Gallop deduct premiership points from those teams whose coaches continually bag the whistleblower - because their whingeing "puts the referees under pressure".

"My thoughts are no different to last night," Lang said. "I've watched it today and I feel exactly the same as I did last night.

"I feel very strongly about the point I made. We're a disciplined side, we're not a side always at the referee and I think you should get rewarded for that."

Finch took exception to the comment yesterday, refusing to entertain Lang's comments.

"That's just perception. It's never been mentioned in our office, we don't fine them anyway - that's something the NRL does," Finch said.

"I tend to not take too much notice of post-match press conferences and emotional types of coaches. Langy is a good mate of mine, so we'll have a chat."

Finch rejected Richardson's jibes, claiming the two-referee system should be here to stay.

"In my opinion, any step that went away from two referees would be detrimental to the product, which is the game," Finch said.

"Whether he believes it's doing nothing or whatever, the fact is that we have cleaner rucks than we had before. Quiet clearly it's got rid of wrestling and grappling.

"It's taken a lot of the fatigue factor away from referees. It's a positive for our game, but in the end I don't make the decisions whether they keep it or not."

A shattered Champion said Lang was simply venting the frustrations of his players.

"I think Langy has been holding it in for a couple of weeks now and what he basically said was what he felt, and we back him 100 per cent," Champion said.

"I think he's kept his mouth quiet in the past and tried to let it sort itself out, but there's only so much he could take.

"They [refereeing decisions] go both ways sometimes. I just think consistency is the key at the moment.

'But there's two ways we can look at it.

"We can sit here and dwell on it and think about poor us, or we can get on with it and go out there and win some football games."