Ireland deny referee pressure

Controversy surrounded the conduct of Ireland’s players during the narrow 21-19 win against Argentina today at Lansdowne Road.

Coach Eddie O’Sullivan was forced to defend Brian O’Driscoll after the Ireland captain was accused of constantly asking referee Tony Spreadbury to sin-bin or send off opposing players.

Argentina captain Agustin Pichot criticised O’Driscoll and the rest of the home side, insisting such actions were against the spirit of the game.

O’Driscoll said: “Not once did I say we want a yellow card and I said to Tony (Spreadbury) that they are persistently infringing.”

“Because it was persistent, I asked him to deal with it and he said he would.

“I was aware that a number of people were getting gouged and there is no place for that in rugby no matter what the prize.”

O’Sullivan pointed to the fact that six of his players are being treated for gouging, five in the eyes and one in the mouth.

He duly reported these incidents to the Italian match commissioner.

“It’s against the spirit of the game to gouge people,” said the Ireland coach.

“At the moment we have six players who were gouged. The officials know and they will deal with it.

“It is an issue and we are very upset about it. We had two [incidents] in the World Cup and people were cited.”

However, O’Sullivan did pay tribute to the South American side’s performance and he also commended his own players for their patience to get into a match-winning situation in the final minute.

“Argentina are a fine rugby nation. We have huge respect for them they have had fantastic backs for a number of years,” he said.

“Argentina are masters at playing their game: slowing things down.

“We made a huge number of tackles. It was about finding a balance between not losing our patience and being smart when we got possession.

“With three minutes on the clock I got the word into Ronan (O’Gara) that it was drop-goal time. I would have preferred if he had had it from 30 yards but he felt he could do it.”

Loosehead prop Reggie Corrigan was at the heart of the forward battle all afternoon and he also defended his team-mates.

“I’m amazed,” he said. “That’s the type of game they play, constant spoiling.

“They did it against France and the French didn’t have an answer for it. They tried to do it against us today and I’m proud the way the lads counteracted it.

“We smashed into the rucks and mauls and drove them hard and off the ball. We got out of it in the end.”

Ireland’s second-half comeback was completed by a O’Gara drop goal two minutes into injury-time but Pichot was left with a sour taste in his mouth for more reasons than the final outcome.

Number eight Gonzalo Longo was shown a yellow card in the 72nd minute for an infringement at a lineout and according to Pichot the Triple Crown winners urged Spreadbury to send more Pumas to the bin.

The Stade Francais scrum-half said: “Defeat is very hard because as proud Argentinians we deserved to win and it’s hard to see Ireland ask the referee to give out yellow cards and penalties.

“It was very unsporting behaviour. Rugby should be played with the code of ethics we’ve always had. Asking for cards and penalties is not right. It was constant for the last 35 minutes.

“We ask for respect and a fair challenge and nothing else – we can do the rest – but in some ways we didn’t get respect in the second half. It’s not right to ask for players to be sent off.

“I played in England for seven years and never asked for a yellow card. I played against Martin Johnson and Lawrence Dallaglio in that time and never heard them ask for a card. Ireland asked five times.

“Ireland killed the ball five or six times at one point and I never asked the referee for a penalty.

“I’m not being hysterical because we lost the game – we lost to a good Irish side who were better tactically in the last 10 minutes. But we weren’t happy with what happened with the referee.”