World Rugby have admitted that three of the four offside penalties given against Ireland in Saturday's defeat to Japan were awarded incorrectly.
Speaking immediately after the game, Joe Schmidt said that the felt those calls had been "tough" on Ireland. That initial instinct has proved to be correct.
Ireland were on the wrong side of the penalty count on Saturday with nine given against them to Japan's six. Schmidt had been vocal regarding referee Angus Gardner in the build-up to the game, calling his officiating performance in Ireland's defeat to Wales in this year's Six Nations "incredibly frustrating".
However, the Australian was not the only one making the calls on Saturday, two of the offside decisions were made by assistant referee Jerome Garces. The Frenchman will take charge of Ireland's game against Russia on Thursday.
"We were penalised for offside four times and we've now got the feedback that three of those were incorrect calls," the Ireland head coach said at a press conference ahead of Ireland's third game of the World Cup against Japan.
"People were asking us about our discipline.
"It's pretty hard to keep getting off the line and onto the front foot when you are getting those calls. Two of them were from an AR (assistant referee) who is going to be refereeing us on Thursday, so we know we're going to have to be on our best behaviour.
"One thing I would say about this team is that they try to go out and deliver and, generally speaking, it's unusual for us to have a higher penalty count than our opponents. So it's frustrating.
"I thought Wayne [Barnes] did a super job (in Ireland v Scotland).
"I know that talking to Gregor, they (Scotland) were happy with how Wayne went in the first game as well. That's our fault if we were on the wrong side of the penalty count there but I do think we've got to try to look after that as best we can."
Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
