Joe Schmidt was unhappy with Australian referee Angus Gardner after Ireland's shock 19-12 loss to Japan, saying he could understand why his players might feel "frustrated" at the penalty count.
Ireland conceded nine penalties to Japan's six, with Schmidt noting it was "not too dissimilar from the last time wehad this referee".
However, the Kiwi-born coach — who defended his decision to name an unchanged pack six days after their last game — called the Brave Blossoms as a "real handful" and acknowledged that they had played with "intensity, skill and energy throughout".
"Japan did not exceed my expectations," Schmidt said. "Unfortunately, they met them. They showed intensity, skill and energy throughout. We controlled the first quarter when we scored two good tries but after that we struggled to contain them. The defeat is tough for us to take but we have to roll up our sleeves and prepare for Russia [in Kobe on Thursday]."
On the refereeing, Schmidt added: "We'll go back and have a look at it. I certainly understand the frustrations of some of the players and in discussing things with them, based on what I saw on the monitor, it's not too dissimilar from the last time we had this referee.
"We'll go back through the official channels and make our comments to the refereeing body."
Schmidt confirmed that No8 Jack Conan would fly home due to a fracture of the foot. Ulster's Jordi Murphy is expected to be called up although that was not yet confirmed last night.
The coach defended Joey Carbery's decision to kick out after the 80-minute gong had sounded, apparently to preserve Ireland's losing bonus point, rather than try to score a length-of-the-field try which could have forced a draw. "Securing a bonus point could be really important because it puts us second in the group, a position that would put us in the quarter-finals," he said.
There was some speculation that Carbery had not actually intended to find touch as he could simply have put dead behind him. But Carbery dismissed that.
"I knew we were still in with a losing bonus point and I didn't see too many other options on, so I just put it out," he said. "I didn't hear anything [calls from team-mates]. I didn't want to risk it with a short kick or anything like that and concede. At the time, I thought it was the right option."
Schmidt said they would have to improve for Russia on Thursday. "We're anticipating another really tough game in five days' time and we're going to have to dust ourselves off and certainly perform better than we did here."
