Matt O'Brien has apologised to the South African team for his handling of the final in Wellington.

Referee Matt O'Brien has not apologised over his controversial handling of the Wellington Sevens final between New Zealand and South Africa on Saturday night, World Rugby says.

O'Brien, who has been refereeing professionally since 2011, reportedly met with Bok Sevens coach Neil Powell on Wednesday in Sydney, with World Rugby Sevens assessor Tappe Henning.

Powell told Supersport.com that his side had accepted an apology from O'Brien over the performance but a World Rugby spokesman said there was no such apology and nor was one required.

HAGEN HOPKINS/ GETTY Rosko Specman of South Africa and his side felt like they were hard done by with the performance of referee Matt O'Brien.

The Boks led 21-7 before O'Brien made some questionable calls, including awarding a 9-1 penalty count in New Zealand's favour.New Zealand famously came back and scored three tries in the last three minutes of the match to win the game.

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"It is factually incorrect to state that Matt O'Brien issued a 'heartfelt' apology to the South Africa Seven coach Neil Powell following last weekend's Wellington Sevens. This simply did not happen," the World Rugby spokesman said in an email to Stuff.co.nz.

"Coach feedback is an important part of the 360 degree match officials review process and while O'Brien and Powell did jointly review the performance, there was no apology required and none offered.

"Powell has since informed World Rugby that he was misquoted."

O'Brien, the son of World Rugby Sevens Referees boss Paddy, has been widely criticised around the world for his performance.

Powell claimed in the Supersport article that he had sat down with O'Brien, and they went through the second half of the game and "he explained his decisions".

"It was really honest and open, and I think he realised at times he had made big mistakes. I think his apologies were sincere. He apologised to me for the way he refereed the game," he was reported as saying by Supersport.

Powell said he was still disappointed with what happened, but added that he is not a guy for records.

"It would have been nice to win it, because we've only won Wellington once before. We don't normally concentrate on the result, but in this case we would have really wanted to win the Sevens there.

"In that aspect we are disappointed in how we lost, but we can't fault the effort and performance of the players.

"They really put their hearts and bodies on the line, we couldn't look at one game and say there was someone who wasn't up for it.

"I'm very proud of the guys and the effort they put in. As I said after the tournament, they deserved better than second place."