Ireland 52-17 Fiji: Sam Prendergast not shown red card because he was ‘wearing a green shirt’ says Fiji coach Mick Byrne

Fiji head coach Mick Byrne felt Ireland were handed preferential decisions during his side’s 52-17 defeat at the Aviva Stadium.

The hosts’ starting 10 Sam Prendergast was sent to his bin by referee Hollie Davidson after his shoulder made contact with the leader of Fiji’s back row Kitione Salawa.

The incident was reviewed in the TMO bunker by Andrew McMenemy, but the decision was made not to upgrade the yellow to a red.

“I think he had a green jersey on so it stayed yellow,” Byrne said.

In contrast, Ireland manager Andy Farrell described Prendergast’s yellow card as “hard enough”.

“Oh, I understand why, but for me he turned his back and that’s hard enough,” he said.

“I don’t know, I’ll have to look at it again, but that’s the game, right?”

With Fiji having been penalized 17 times to Ireland’s eight throughout the game, Byrne felt the 50-50s were going against his side.

“They’re probably on us, they’re definitely on us,” he added.

“Sometimes with our enthusiasm to get the job done, especially early on, we came in from the side of the ruck a couple of times to try and put pressure on.

“At the end of the day it’s up to us to get better and it’s not on the referee.

“The last try (by Ronan Kelleher), if you look at it again, the green shirt holding on to the white shirt, nothing happens at the TMO – I’m sure if it was the other way around we might not have granted that attempt.”