{"id":592226,"date":"2026-07-18T14:51:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T14:51:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/592226\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T14:51:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T14:51:23","slug":"andy-farrell-bites-his-tongue-on-officiating-following-irelands-loss-to-new-zealand-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/592226\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Farrell bites his tongue on officiating following Ireland\u2019s loss to New Zealand \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andy Farrell<\/a> was obliged to bite his tongue and make little or no comment on the officiating during New Zealand<\/a>\u2019s 40-21 win over Ireland<\/a> in Eden Park, following Gonzalo Quesada\u2019s two-week suspension for comments he made about the refereeing after Italy\u2019s 47-17 loss last week to the All Blacks.<\/p>\n

The apparent message from World Rugby is that their officials are beyond criticism, publicly at any rate, no matter their performance. <\/p>\n

Here at Eden Park, the Australian referee Nic Berry and his officials, including TMO Ben Whitehouse, decreed that Luke Jacobsen should only receive a yellow card for launching himself at Josh van der Flier and sticking his elbow out in catching the flanker\u2019s head with his upper right arm.<\/p>\n

\"\"Reaction: New Zealand ease to victory over Ireland<\/p>\n

Even more ludicrously, when this decision went to a bunker review, the foul play review officer, Andrew Jackson, of England, somehow decided that Jacobsen\u2019s punishment should remain a yellow, and not be increased to a 20-minute red card. It was the only task he had in the entire game.<\/p>\n

That must have been all the more galling for the Irish camp considering how Tadhg Beirne\u2019s yellow card for a high hit on Beauden Barrett was wrongly upgraded to a 20-minute red card in Chicago last November, and was subsequently rescinded on appeal. <\/p>\n

But although they are understood to be furious, when Farrell was asked if he was surprised that it remained a yellow card, he said: \u201cThere\u2019s incidents all over the field tonight that you could talk about and we\u2019re not able to do that, so I\u2019ll pass on that one.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0All Blacks beat Ireland with plenty to spare at Eden Park fortressOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Berry hardly allowed a contest at the breakdown yet awarded Jordie Barrett a key penalty in the jackal when not releasing after tacking Ciaran Frawley, and Farrell could not mask his apparent confusion on that one.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow he was turned over, I don\u2019t know,\u201d said Farrell. \u201cI thought that was a big moment as well because we\u2019re getting back in the game and there\u2019s a bit of flow coming to our game as well. There were a few of them, but the key is not being behind in the first place, to make sure we\u2019re dealing with that first and foremost.\u201d<\/p>\n

Berry also failed to brandish a yellow card at Quinn Tupaea for a one-handed, deliberate knock-on, which Dan Sheehan appeared to question, and afterwards the Irish captain said: \u201cIt was tricky at the time to see it. You\u2019re watching the big screen like everyone else. There\u2019s not much I can do. <\/p>\n

\"Ireland'sIreland’s Ciaran Frawley and Joe McCarthy dejected after defeat to New Zealand. Photograph: INPHO\/Ben Brady <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to make sure I put the question to the ref at the right times. I felt like I was there in the conversations a good bit. I\u2019m just a player on the pitch. I have to try to highlight these issues. There\u2019s not much I can do other than that. I\u2019ll have to look it back, to be honest. I don\u2019t know what more I could have done.\u201d<\/p>\n

There also should have been time for one more play when Berry prematurely ended the game. \u201cWe look at the screen, we know that there\u2019s a few seconds left, I don\u2019t know what the explanation is,\u201d said Farrell. \u201cWe\u2019re chasing a bonus point. Hopefully we can get an answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, despite the decidedly questionable officiating, Farrell freely conceded that Ireland were well beaten on the night and that they were authors of their own downfall to some degree, albeit there was no doubting their tenacity.<\/p>\n

Farrell cited \u201cpenalties conceded or uncharacteristic poor passing\u201d as the underlining cause for the lack of flow in Ireland\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut how we stuck at it and kept on fighting is there for everyone to see. We saw that in Australia and we got a great win on the back of that, but against the quality of opposition that you\u2019re playing here, you\u2019re going to come off on the wrong side of the result. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t just the wrong side of the result \u2013 they won pretty comfortably in the end. I suppose the overriding feeling is we\u2019ve got to use it in the right manner for what\u2019s happening in the next 15 months.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look back on it, some of our best ballplayers [had errors], that\u2019s why I say uncharacteristic really because it\u2019s something you don\u2019t see on a daily basis or on a weekend either. But that\u2019s what big matches do to you and that\u2019s a lesson that\u2019s got to be learned, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the 40-21 scoreline was fairly emphatic, although Farrell did not feel it was a fair reflection of where the two sides stand.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think so. We\u2019re disappointed with ourselves, we\u2019re full of pride because of the fight, but we\u2019re disappointed with how it unfolded in the accuracy of a few parts of our game. I think the two sides are certainly closer than that, but I suppose the only thing that matters is how both teams keep on improving over the next 15 months.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sheehan said it was a frustrating game in that Ireland were productive at times, scoring three good tries and had a strong set-piece, but he cited \u201cuncharacteristic mistakes\u201d and \u201cdiscipline errors\u201d, which he said were the consequences of being \u201ca bit too desperate and trying to make things happen too much, and that\u2019s just lessons we need to take in\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe opportunity to play in Eden Park was one that I don\u2019t know if we\u2019ll ever get back. So it\u2019s frustrating that we didn\u2019t really get it all to come together there. I\u2019m proud of the lads, I thought they stuck together really well over the last few weeks. Probably not the season that we really wanted,\u201d said Sheehan of a campaign that saw Ireland win eight out of 12, book-ended by defeats to New Zealand and also losses to South Africa, by an average of more than 14 points.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw the improvements at times but if we want to be serious about going on and really pushing world rugby standards, we need to be better. Going into the summer break now for us, obviously rest up, but we need to make sure we\u2019re reflecting properly and get ourselves in the right mindset to attack the next season. We have a bit of improving to do to get there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andy Farrell was obliged to bite his tongue and make little or no comment on the officiating during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":592227,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[76],"tags":[34133,70904,18,19,17,34132,107514,132],"class_list":["post-592226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-all-blacks","tag-andy-farrell","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ireland-rugby","tag-nations-championship","tag-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116941546791931548","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=592226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}