ABs happy spear was just yellow

The All Blacks have applauded the off field yellow card handed down to lock Brodie Retallick as a 'good decision'.

Retallick was handed the sanction by the SANZAR judicial officer for a spear tackle on Springbok rival Andries Bekker in the 32-16 win in Soweto at the weekend.

All Blacks assistant coach Ian Foster says it was perfectly handled.

"It obviously goes through a process, but it's nice that officially it wasn't cited and it wasn't deemed as a red card offence," Foster said..

"We think that's about right."

Foster said the players will have a five day break before meeting up again to start preparing for the October 20 encounter with the Wallabies in Brisbane.