Farrell Reveals Ireland Referee Plea After 5 Cards In South Africa Loss
Ireland 13-24 South Africa
Eoin Harrington reporting from the Aviva Stadium
Andy Farrell and Caelan Doris were both less than impressed with the decision not to card South Africa's Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, as Ireland reflected on a difficult evening.
Ireland were ultimately soundly beaten by South Africa on an utterly bizarre night in the Aviva Stadium on Saturday.
Five Irish players were shown cards, in a chaotic game Ireland lost as much on their own indiscipline as on South Africa's impressive form.
The first-half was defined by constant interruptions from both referee Matthew Carley and TMO Andrew Jackson, with Ireland handed an astonishing four cards in just 40 minutes.
With the Boks already 5-0 up thanks to Damian Willemse's try, the first contentious flashpoint saw South African fly-half Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu somehow avoid any card after a no-arms head hit on Tommy O'Brien as the Irishman charged towards the line.
Tadhg Beirne thought he had Ireland's first try after 19 minutes, but a TMO check was to begin a remarkable 20-minute officiating run for Ireland.
Replays showed James Ryan flying in with a no-arms charge to the head in the phase before Beirne's try. The Leinster lock was sent to the bin, and his yellow card was soon upgraded to a 20-minute red.
It was by no means an aesthetically pleasing game of rugby, and the first half would continue to be stop-start in nature and defined by Irish indiscipline (and refereeing that was hugely unpopular with the home crowd).
After Tommy O'Brien avoided sanction for head contact on Canan Moodie, Sam Prendergast would be sent to the bin for offside in the buildup to South Africa's second try, scored by Cobus Reinach.
Three minutes later, Dan Sheehan managed to bundle over for a much-needed Ireland try, but two more sin-bins were to follow before half-time.
Both Jack Crowley (hands in the ruck) and Andrew Porter (scrum infringement) were yellow-carded before the break, leaving Ireland briefly down to 12 men. A penalty try for South Africa would leave Ireland trailing 19-7 after the break.
After half-time, the game took on a more entertaining shape, though Ireland were still struggling to gain any consistent foothold.
Ireland grew into the game from the 50 minute mark, but a try from the controversially-exonerated Feinberg-Mngomezulu meant Sam Prendergast's two penalties only reduced the deficit by one.
A fifth Irish sin-bin arrived for Paddy McCarthy just after the hour - minutes after he was reintroduced as a subsitute, and after a string of scrum penalties against Ireland that summed up their indiscipline.
In the end, there would be no more scores in the final 25 minutes of play, despite a much brighter finish to the game from Ireland, who battled throughout.
The biggest talking point of this game, however, was undoubtedly the string of penalties and cards given up by Ireland. By full-time, the penalty count read Ireland 18-13 South Africa, with five of the Springboks' penalty concessions coming in the dying moments as Ireland chased the game.
The build-up to the game had seen South Africa complain about what they perceived as unduly harsh treatment from officials in their recent tests - something the Irish coaches raised with the referee ahead of the game, Andy Farrell revealed post-match.
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There was so much to dissect from Ireland's loss to South Africa, but it could all have gone so differently had Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu been sin-binned (or worse) in the opening moments.
When asked if they felt Feinberg-Mngomezulu should have been carded in the post-match press conference, Andy Farrell and Caelan Doris made their feelings clear.
Farrell: "Well, you're asking the question because you thought so as well. So, yeah."
Doris: "I thought the same, yeah. Thought the same."
Ahead of the game, both Damian Willemse and Siya Kolisi had complained about South Africa's treatment from referees during this November series, something Andy Farrell revealed he had flagged with the match officials ahead of Saturday's game.
"Well, we brought it up with the referees before the game," Farrell said.
"They said that that would never be a factor obviously because this is a separate [game]...I'll let you be the judge of that."
Both Doris and Farrell expressed frustration that Ireland had given up so many "manageable" penalties in a game marked by constant refereeing interventions.
Despite Farrell having spoken to the referees beforehand, he would not shy away from taking responsibility for Ireland's poor discipline, especially in the scrum.
The scrum brought two yellow cards and a penalty try for South Africa, and Farrell said it was on Ireland not to give the ref "access" to them in such scenarios.
Obviously, you can talk about all sorts of stuff that you've talked to the referees beforehand during the week and and say those are the same similar type of pitches, etc.
But you've got to look at yourself first.
You've gotta not give the referee the access to see you in whatever type of light that he was obviously seeing us in
He saw a dominant scrum and whether there's illegalities within all that, you know, we've got to see past that and be better than that.
A disappointing end to the Autumn Series for Ireland against South Africa, and one which will leave plenty of "what if" questions after how many of their problems they brought on themselves.
Andy Farrell had prickly response to "shambolic" Ireland question
Farrell, however, sought to accentuate the positives, and was unhappy with one particular line of questioning at the beginning of his post-match press conference.
"I would say chaotic," Farrell said when asked to reflect on the 'shambolic' first half.
I won't repeat your word. Cause I think you're wrong.
I haven't seen a game like that ever. You think you've seen it all. I haven't seen a game like that ever.
But, I suppose, you know, first and foremost you look at yourself and why things have happened, so we'll do that and and make sure that we learn the lessons from that.
But my overriding thought of the game is that I'm unbelievably proud, so for you to start the conversation off like that doesn't sit well.
It was a tense start to the press conference, and Farrell would expand on his remarks by explaining the learnings Ireland could take on a night where they battled on despite so many setbacks.
If you can't learn from that, then you're in the wrong place really. For all sorts of reasons, I thought
Going down to 12 men, how the lads came out and showed the bottle for the country...certainly in the first 10 minutes of that second half it was absolutely amazing.
I think you could see with the crowd, the effort that they put in, the crowd recognised that and supported them.
To be able to win a second half 6-5 under those type of circumstances, I know it doesn't tell the full story of the second half, but it's actually amazing really that that happened or that occurred.
A mixed bag then, for Ireland, whose 13-year undefeated home record against South Africa has finally come to an end.
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