Ireland found an unlikely ally in Wales coach Warren Gatland after a controversial try helped condemn Declan Kidney's men to a 19-13 Six Nations defeat at Millennium Stadium on Saturday.
Wales scrum-half Mike Phillips, making his 50th international appearance, grabbed the try that sent his side to only their second home win over Ireland since 1983.
The controversy arose because the score stemmed form Wales hooker and captain Matthew Rees having taken a quick throw-in with a different ball from the one that had been kicked into touch by Irish substitute fly-half Jonny Sexton, contravening rugby's Law 19.2 (d).
That states: “For a quick throw-in, the player must use the ball that went into touch. A quick throw-in is not permitted if another person has touched the ball apart from the player throwing it in and an opponent who carried it into touch.
The Irish complained furiously to referee Jonathan Kaplan, asking the South African official to refer the matter to the television match official but Kaplan instead consulted Scottish linesman Peter Allan who said it had been the same ball used.
This was proved incorrect by television replays but Wales had turned a 9-13 deficit into 16-13 lead they would not lose.
Ireland captai Brian O'Driscoll branded the decision to award Phillips the try "unforgivable", adding: "If I was wrong I would personally be embarrassed, especially if you have the services there to cover all bases.
"Games hang in the balance on decisions, everyone is human and wrong calls are made sometimes, but some are unforgivable."
And Gatland admitted some sympathy towards is former team while welcoming the change in fortune for his players.
"It's a decision that has gone our way, we have had some rough ones in the past that have gone against us and I am not complaining about it," he said.
"If he (the referee) had gone to the TMO it would have taken a couple of seconds, he would have asked if it was the same ball and he would have said no and we would have had a lineout back from where it was taken from.
"We wouldn't be talking about it now, but it doesn't mean that we would not have still gone on and won the game.
“It doesn't take the shine off for me. I don't care, we won the game.”
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/zS5yb5x9xdw/post.aspx
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