Former Ireland flanker Stephen Ferris has slammed the performance of referee Matthew Carley at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The English official brandished six cards during the clash between the Springboks and Ireland in Dublin, five of which went to the hosts and included a 20-minute red card to James Ryan.<\/p>\n
Props Andrew Porter and Paddy McCarthy were both yellow-carded for their illegalities at scrum time, while Jack Crowley was sin-binned for a cynical penalty at a ruck.<\/p>\n
Fellow fly-half Sam Prendergast was yellow-carded after being the last to infringe after a plethora of indiscretions by his teammates in the Ireland<\/a> 22. Springbok<\/a> scrum-half Grant Williams was similarly sanctioned later in the match.<\/p>\n Ryan was the first to be carded after he flew into a ruck with a tucked shoulder and collided with Bok hooker Malcolm Marx, with his actions sent to be reviewed by the Foul Play Review Officer, who opted to upgrade the yellow card to a red.<\/p>\n Centre of attention<\/p>\n That came shortly after a controversial tackle by South African fly-half Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu was lucky to escape further sanction after a dangerous tackle on Tommy O\u2019Brien was deemed to be just a penalty.<\/p>\n While it was an incredibly ill-disciplined performance from Andy Farrell\u2019s Ireland team, who were dominated at the set-pieces and spent 58% of the match in their own half, Ferris seemingly blamed the referee for his former team\u2019s misgivings.<\/p>\n \u201cA bizarre game,\u201d he said on RTE Sport\u2019s broadcast after the match.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the player of the match should have gone to the referee; to be honest, he was the centre of attention the whole way throughout the game.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Opinion: Credit to Daan Human as Springboks \u2018battered and bullied\u2019 Ireland\u2019s B&I Lions without their \u2018chief destroyers\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n