INTERNATIONAL RULES: Although the Australians have responded with admirable equanimity, they must have been a bit taken aback by the doomsday utterances of GAA president Seán McCague in the aftermath of Sunday's first International Rules Test at Croke Park, writes Sean Moran.

In fairness to McCague, he was measured in what he had to say and refused to point the finger at one side rather than the other but the reaction in Ireland has left no doubt where most of the blame is seen to lie. Part of this is a genuine product of differing perspectives. In general people tend to view the contests through the prism of their own game and this can lead to as much distortion in the stands as it can occasionally on the field. Attitudes to foul play are also different. Some actions intrinsic to either Gaelic football or Australian Rules are anathema in the other.

The late tackle after the ball is gone has been a bone of contention for the Irish side since the series resumed in 1998 and had to be discussed between then managers Colm O'Rourke and Leigh Matthews in the week between the first and second Tests that year. Anything loose with the boot causes outrage in Australia and so wild pulling on the ball had to be curtailed.

Similarly both sides have a tendency to be unimpressed by the other's referee. It's easy to feel that decisions are going along partisan lines when following the flow of a game. After Sunday's match a couple of Irish players were critical of Australian official Scott McLaren's decisions on frees in the second half of the match. Superficial survey of the second 40 minutes summons up images of a couple of important converted frees awarded to Australia by McLaren but playback shows them to be justified for pushes in the back.

The most substantial case that McLaren has to answer is the allowing of Australia's first goal. Ireland's Peter Burke kicked out from his goal to Kieran McGeeney who made the catch. As the ball was deemed not to have travelled the necessary 15 metres, no mark was called and Chris Johnson was free to tackle McGeeney. The ball ran loose for Matthew Pavlich's goal.

Leave aside that the 15-metre rule had been - at best - erratically applied, it was a very close call. Burke was somewhere between his own five-metre area and the 13-metre line whereas McGeeney was beyond the 20-metre line. It might have been a good call but you couldn't be 100 per cent.

Then again at the very end of the match it looked as if Graham Canty threw himself on the ball to prevent it rolling over the line for a goal. A penalty would probably have yielded at least three points to add to the visitors' seven-point lead going into the second Test.

Irish officials made little mention of this factor afterwards - although there is continuing concern at hits coming in after the ball has gone - and in fact it was noticeable how integrated the match officiating was both between McLaren and Wexford's Brian White and between the referees and the linesmen courtesy of the radio link.

Interpretation is a tricky subject in International Rules. The game is only played twice annually and by players who play two different games for the rest of the year. As Ger Canning's ebullient Australian television co-commentator Eddie Maguire observed when David Neitz was trudging to the sin bin after creasing Paul McGrane with a late frontal challenge: "He doesn't know what he's done wrong because that is a fair hit in Aussie Rules football."

Maguire omitted the necessary explanation that of course Neitz wasn't playing Australian Rules and had presumably been given ample instruction in the international code but that reversion to familiar instincts is a common enough occurrence.

A baffling aspect of the international matches is the way players engage in mass brawls when they know that similar behaviour in their own game would lead to severe suspension. There hasn't been any regression to the gothic scenes of the 1980s but every series throws up a little controversy or two.

There was one in the third quarter of the first Test of the very first of the resumed series in 1998 but things quietened down for the next match. At the end of the Melbourne Test in 1999 Australians were angry that Ireland scored a late goal in defiance of a blood-injury rule that in their game would have necessitated a stoppage.

Two years ago Jason Akermanis's constant provocation of Peter Canavan led to both being sent off and getting suspensions for two and one Tests respectively. Last year Australian referee Brett Allen was verbally abused by Irish players and selector Paddy Clarke was then also found guilty of physical interference with the official by the Control Committee and suspended for five Tests, effectively ending his involvement in the international series and severely embarrassing the GAA.

Sunday was tame enough by these standards. Ireland's Tadhg Kennelly was quite outspoken in a post-match radio interview with Brian Carthy on RTÉ. He said that he had never encountered such off-the-ball fouling in two years playing in the AFL with Sydney. By its nature what happens off the ball occasionally escapes the attention of cameras and may cause difficulties for video analysis but what evidence is available cuts both ways.

Evan Kelly was a bit unlucky to be given a yellow card and sin-binned for 15 minutes. His tackle on Josh Francou was undoubtedly high but it was the Australian player who started throwing punches. Admittedly the diving punch with which Kelly sought to finish the row was spectacular but it was equally uncharacteristic.

At the subsequent melee Brett Montgomery arrived from a completely different part of the field like a man late for a train and hurled himself aboard. The same player had a punch thrown at him later in the match and Ireland's Eamonn O'Hara has been repeatedly seen on television in the past few days stiffing Tyson Edwards with an elbow in the 57th minute. The Sligo man had been injured off the ball earlier.

The point is that there has to be some tolerance of the different perspectives of the two football codes but equally there can be no leniency in dealing with incidents where differing interpretation crosses the line into spiteful fouling.

Accordingly we can probably expect a bit of action when the Control Committee reports, probably tomorrow, and it won't all be in the one direction.