South African coach Harry Viljoen had a word, Ireland's Warren Gatland wanted one and about 49,000 supporters would have demanded several (not including the expletives) with the match officials at Lansdowne Road yesterday.

Viljoen confirmed that he spoke with touch judge Ed Morrison at half-time to question the legality of Ireland's first penalty by Ronan O'Gara. He had justifiable cause for complaint as the majority of the West Stand and Havelock Square end will testify. O'Gara's penalty appeared to miss the right hand upright by a good three feet yet Morrison and fellow touch judge Rob Dickson raised their flags to signify that it had been good.

Gatland graciously conceded: "Yeh, I thought it had missed so perhaps we were a little fortunate in that respect."

Viljoen also broached the subject with referee Steve Lander but his response was one of amazement, pointing out that the touch judges had both signalled immediately.

Irish coach Gatland would have preferred a 30 second chat with Lander on a point of law. When Springbok fullback Thinus Delport was sin binned for a late tackle on Tyrone Howe, Ireland should have enjoyed a couple of scrums with a man advantage in the backline. Instead the South African captain Andre Vos moved to full-back, even though you are supposed to have all eight forwards in a scrum.

Gatland admitted: "Talking about the referee I was a bit disappointed when he allowed, after the full-back was sin-binned, the South African number eight to come out of the scrum when the rule says that you must have eight forwards in the scrum the whole time.

"We tried to send a message down to the touch judge and the players that the number eight couldn't come out of the scrum during that period but he (Vos) was allowed to stay out and they only had seven in for two or three scrums." It would hardly be one-eyed - they were poor for both teams - to suggest that the match officials didn't quite accomplish the balance between being intrusive at the right time and less conspicuous at others. Morrison's chest control would never have won him a place in the Brazilian soccer team of the 1970s.

It was his unwitting intervention - he touched the ball in the in-goal area after South African Percy Montgomery's penalty attempt has struck a post and gone wide - that prompted another dispute on the laws of the game. Ireland's captain Keith Wood felt that it should have been a 22-metre drop out.

"I haven't seen it happen before and I don't know the rule about it but I would have presumed that once a ball hits an official in that situation, the in-goal area, that it's dead. I thought it would be a 22 drop out. The referee, under advisement from his touch judges, decreed that it was a five metre scrum; I disagreed but such is life and in the end it didn't matter because we forced a turnover."

When his South African counterpart Vos was asked for his interpretation he concluded by smiling and saying that he had no idea why the Springboks were awarded the scrum.

Technicalities aside, the disappointment was tangible as the Irish management sifted through the debris of another heart-breaking defeat. All conceded that it was an opportunity that went abegging.

Gatland admitted: "I am disappointed by the result but proud of the players. We are trying to play a certain style, getting the ball wide and I think we're coming closer to achieving it on a consistent basis. These are the sort of games that you need your players to have on a regular basis. Teams like South Africa are playing this rugby week in, week out and in the Tri-Nations and Super 12. It's very encouraging from our perspective."

Assistant coach Eddie O'Sullivan was especially pleased with the performance of the backs. "After defending for long periods in the first half, we eventually got a platform from the forwards and caused them problems out wide. Brian O'Driscoll was very effective in pinning down their wide players, putting players round the corner and taking gaps himself.

"The try that Tyrone Howe scored couldn't have worked out any better. We practise it in training and now and again it comes right, I was pleased with that. It was a nice surprise to give them on the day." It was a view shared by South African coach Viljoen who conceded to being surprised and impressed with the performance of the Ireland three-quarters.

He was less enthused with his own team's display. "I had butterflies all the time. I was actually a bit disappointed. There's a lot of work to be done and we will have to improve a lot over the next two to three weeks. We had a lot of possession but I don't think we utilised it properly."