Joe Schmidt has outstanding issues with the officiating of Wayne Barnes.
Schmidt still believes the English referee’s interpretation, and that of his officials, of Jack McGrath’s scrummaging against Wales was incorrect.
But it was Barnes’s breakdown decisions which prompted a YouTube video, presumably by an Irish person, alleging Barnes refereed Welsh activity at the breakdown differently to Ireland.
“Wayne was also on the touch(line) against Italy and gave a scrum penalty,” said Ireland’s head coach. “He was refereeing in the French game and refereeing again (against Wales).”
He only got the whistle in Cardiff due to a late withdrawal by Steve Walsh.
“We have seen a fair bit of Wayne throughout the championship. We keep trying to work with the referees so they understand what we are trying achieve. At the same time they work on what they are doing.
“The only conversation I have had with the referees is to try and keep working together so we can get a real consistency and a real understanding of those facets of the game.”
Any lessons from last weekend to avoid scrum penalties, mainly against Jack McGrath, despite Ireland appearing to be the dominant pack?
“We don’t believe that there are,” Schmidt replied. “We believe that Jack is very correct in the scrum, he tends to keep his hip in, tends not to take the angle,” Schmidt explained.
“It is difficult for any loosehead. If they are dominating, that side of the scrum is inevitably going to come up, as there are (sic) pressure on two shoulders of the tighthead and only on one of the loosehead. There is a natural tendency that the axis of the scrum will turn up on the loosehead side, if you are dominating on that side. We try to keep the axis balanced and try to power through both sides but it is difficult if your opposition are moving around in front of you.”
The Englishman, of course, has weathered heavier storms after refereeing a Test match in Cardiff. Kiwis have not forgotten, nor forgiven, the 2007 World Cup quarter-final when perhaps the greatest All Blacks side ever assembled were beaten by France.
Despite missing the blatant Frédéric Michalak forward pass leading to a game-changing try, New Zealand felt most aggrieved about the activity at the breakdown.
Barnes has since become the leading authority in Premiership derbies, decisive European affairs and Test matches like last Saturday’s ferocious contest at the Millennium Stadium.
Yet Paul O’Connell and Seán O’Brien were visibly livid with his decision to award Wales a scrum from the last driving maul and subsequent penalty from that last scrum.
“No,” was Schmidt’s answer when asked if any clarity came as to why the 80th minute penalty was awarded to Wales. “For us, really, it’s about going forward now.”
