Ireland coach Joe Schmidt was keen to move on from an alleged stamp in today’s 49-7 victory over Georgia.
Flanker Viktor Kolelishvili appeared to land his foot on the face of Ireland’s Dominic Ryan at the base of a ruck, and captain Eoin Reddan was seen to ask referee JP Doyle to take another look at a video replay of the incident.
Doyle declined and although Kolelishvili will likely face action when the citing commissioner makes his report, Schmidt refused to pursue the incident in his post-match comments.
‘I think the protocol is there that the TMO can let the referee know he believes there has been an incident of foul play,’ Schmidt told the media. ‘And then he can review it in conjunction with the TMO.
‘Obviously the incident had past, and by the time Eoin spoke to the referee the game had moved on and he had heard nothing from the TMO. According to protocol he acted correctly. There is not too much JP Doyle could have done.’
Ryan was also happy to put the matter behind him, saying: ‘I don’t know if it was intentional, I doubt it was intentional. To be honest, maybe a bit reckless. It was directly in my eye but I don’t think it was intentional, it was a mistake. He was just coming through the ruck so I can’t hold anything against him.’
