Refereeing decisions prove costly for Joe Schmidt’s team

The officiating was obviously a major talking point with the crowd in Dublin making their displeasure known at various points during the match. I actually like Jaco Peyper as a referee.

And as he showed with the aforementioned penalties and yellow cards, he was perfectly prepared to punish New Zealand. But rather like the All Blacks would not have experienced anything like that this year, there is no way he has refereed a game of that intensity in the last 12 months. It must have felt overwhelming at times. The first six minutes, with New Zealand flying out of the traps and scoring after three minutes of quite sensational, clinical rugby, and then holding off Ireland’s response, was the best six minutes of rugby I have seen this year.

Ireland can consider themselves pretty hard done by regarding a few of Peyper’s calls. Sam Cane was very lucky to avoid a yellow card for his shoulder charge on Robbie Henshaw. Nor did I did think Beauden Barrett’s try should have been awarded. I am not sure Peyper did either, to be honest, the way he asked so explicitly of his TMO: “Did you clearly see the ball touch the grass?” The affirmative response left him with no alternative but to award a try. I also thought New Zealand might have had at least another two yellow cards on another day; Aaron Smith and Malakai Fekitoa were both lucky to stay on the pitch following high tackles either side of half-time.