Ireland captain Sam Monaghan has said she spoke to the officials about a biting allegation against a French player during Sunday’s World Cup quarter-final at Sandy Park.

Early in the second half, Irish backrow Aoife Wafer emerged from a ruck pointing at her arm after securing a jackal turnover. A few moments later, a number of Irish players pointed towards the big screen after seeing replays of the incident.

Footage soon emerged on social media of the ruck in question.

“I spoke to the referee, I didn’t see it,” said Monaghan. “I spoke to the referee and asked could they have a look at it. [The check] was through TMO.”

When asked about the ramifications of an alleged bite not being punished, Ireland head coach Scott Bemand said he would not “get drawn into” the discussion at this stage. “We’ve literally just stepped off the pitch,” he said. “If there’s any bits to pick up, we’ll pick up in the next hour.

“I think in terms of process, your on pitch leadership would mention to the referee. Then it’s up to the team officials to deal with it should they see fit at that point.

“I’m not going to get drawn into anything at this point. at the moment, I haven’t seen anything. As I said I’ve literally stepped in here.

“If there are bits to pursue, we could potentially be disappointed but we’ve followed the process as best we can from our perspective in terms of the on-pitch conversations.”

Ireland fullback Stacey Flood added that the decision to review the allegation was not in Ireland’s control. “I think that’s down to the officials on the day,” she said.

“If the girls see that, we have to get on with it. It’s not our decision to make. It was said to the referee, if it’s not taken up there’s nothing we can do about it. We have to live in the moment. Hopefully it does get looked at but that’s not up to us.

“We are in a very sportsmanship game, rugby is that. It’s about people looking at themselves and maybe taking a step back. Maybe it’s just in the moment, you go red for a bit. I don’t think anyone really means that. Hopefully it’s looked at and it gets sorted off-field.”

When asked about the incident, French coach Gaelle Mignot said she had not seen it. “We have not seen the images,” she said. “We have been celebrating in the changing rooms. We will see what happens.”

If Ireland do want to refer the allegation to World Rugby, they have four hours from full-time to submit a request. The citing commissioner can call for a disciplinary review within 12 hours.

Ireland led for much of the contest until Joanna Grisez’s 66th-minute try earned France a lead they never relinquished. The game ended with a series of Irish attacks inside the French 22, a France knock-on at a lineout ending the game with the clock in the red.

“That’s what I asked from the girls at the start of the game, ‘Don’t let the moment pass you by, you leave everything you can out there,’” said Monaghan. “I truly believe we did.”

“You can see it in the player’s faces, they are heartbroken. But it’s such a proud [dressing-room]. I couldn’t ask for more from them. We gave it all, we brought them to 90 minutes, probably, in the end with the five minutes from the first half, but I’m extremely proud of this group.

“It is a young group, only one player out of 32 has experienced a World Cup before, so if you do look back two years ago, we were competing in WX3, and we were very, very close to winning a World Cup quarter-final there.

“There’s no denying how heartbroken we are from that loss. We are devastated but we’re proud of how we’ve inspired the next generation coming through and we’ve definitely put the jersey in a better place in this tournament.”