Ireland captain Brian O'Driscoll was furious after referee Jonathan Kaplan allowed Mike Phillips' crucial try to stand in Cardiff on Saturday.
Ireland captain furious with Kaplan following contentious try
Ireland captain Brian O'Driscoll was furious after referee Jonathan Kaplan allowed Mike Phillips' crucial try to stand in Cardiff on Saturday.
Phillips' controversial score handed Wales victory by 19-13, with Kaplan coming under fire for not referring the try to the video referee.
The crucial moment of a hard-fought RBS 6 Nations encounter came with Ireland leading 13-9 in the 50th minute when Wales hooker Matthew Rees took a quick lineout and the scrum-half raced away to score in the corner.
But TV replays showed that Rees had taken the lineout with a different ball to that kicked out of play by Ireland replacement Jonathan Sexton, something which is not allowed under IRB regulation 19.2.
Kaplan asked his assistant, Peter Allan of Scotland, whether the ball used was the same as that which left the field and, when he answered in the affirmative, the try was awarded.
Kaplan was not able to call on the video referee to adjudicate as the TMO is only to be used for decisions on the act of scoring.
But O'Driscoll was disappointed the referee awarded the try.
Frustrating
"I didn't see it myself but when half your team saying it you take their word for it," he said. "I tried to relate that to Jonathan Kaplan and the touch judge and they were having none of it and it's really frustrating for such an incident to have a huge bearing on the game.
"I actually didn't (ask Kaplan to use the video official). When I went over to him he was pushing everyone away and I told him I was captain and he said that was fine but he wanted to talk to his touch judge.
"So I stood there and before anything else could be said he awarded the try.
"I did mention it to him a few minutes later after I had seen it on the TV and I told him that it was a massive momentum swinger and that it had had a huge bearing on the game, but he just shrugged that off.
"Games hang in the balance on decisions, everyone is human and wrong calls are made sometimes, but some are unforgivable."
Wales coach Warren Gatland admitted his side fortunate to come away with victory on the back of a contentious score.
"There were two very even teams and the game could have gone either way," he said. "We had a terrible start and we got back into the game. I can understand Ireland being frustrated with the try that was allowed.
"It's a decision that's gone our way, we've had some against us in the past, so I'm not complaining about it."
Gatland was left content with the result, saying his side's defensive qualities had been hardened by a string of largely losing match-ups against the world's top three rugby nations, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
"I hope today puts things into perspective," said the Kiwi. "I don't think we're as bad as people were making out. We had a run of games we didn't win, but we were playing the best teams in the world."
