Joe Schmidt wants ref Angus Gardner to give Ireland a fair deal against World Cup host nation Japan tomorrow - and believes they'll get it after match officials got a dressing down from World Rugby bosses.
Brave Blossoms boss Jamie Joseph yesterday accused Ireland of "illegal scrummaging" - this week Japan have put a spotlight on Cian Healy's work at scrum-time.
Schmidt defended Healy to the hilt at his team announcement, which sees four changes from last weekend's win over Scotland, and with Jack Carty starting at no 10 for the first time, insisting it would be a motivating force in Shizuoka.
Gardner will take charge and, with Schmidt complaining that it was "annoying and surprising" that Ireland lost the penalty count 7-6 to Scotland last Sunday, he wants better from the Australian than his last game in charge of Ireland - the Six Nations loss in Cardiff in March.
"Obviously it wasn’t great for us," Schmidt stated. "We didn’t play particularly well but didn’t feel we got a lot of the rub of the green from Angus, either.
"If you look back at the scrum we actually went straight through the middle of the Welsh scrum to get a turnover ball very early - and then when they ran around the corner, we got no receipt (of penalties) from that.
"And they were given penalty rewards, which was incredibly frustrating.
“I think the officials will be as nailed on as they possibly can be - and Angus is no different from any other official this weekend.
"I don’t think you ever end up (just) talking about a ref. The referee is very much reliant on his ARs and his TMOs to be a team of four.
“We saw a couple of citings from the game in our pool on Tuesday evening where the officials as a team decided they were yellow cards that were cited later as red cards.
"Obviously they’ve been given a stir up from World Rugby - and I know when these players that I work with get a stir up, they come out and they’re very focused the next outing.
“So we’d have confidence that the officials are going to be good this weekend across the board".
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