It is A telling commentary on the great divide in rugby refereeing styles between the two hemispheres that tomorrow's match official, England's Ed Morrison, is seen as more of an influential figure than any of the 30 players.

Who would have thought it, but the arrival of a `neutral' English referee is a cause of enormous relief within the Irish squad.

After five games of having penalty counts against them, the Irish management can scarcely contain their weariness of South African referees.

All Warren Gatland and the players want is a fair deal. For example, for a referee not to automatically presume that the Irish backs are offside when successfully pushing up onto a typically deep-lying South African backline.

Another example: heretofore, many of the opposing forwards might have been prosecuted for loitering with intent, so often have they fringed around the sides of rucks.

Thus, when an Irish forward takes the ball up the middle and the supporting players clear the ball, the Irish scrum-half has still been getting opposing man and ball together. Aside from disrupting Irish continuity, it also obliges the tourists to commit all eight forwards to the rucks, thereby leaving the scrum-half with no target runners to pop the ball to.

The Irish management hope to meet with Morrison. "We're due to contact him this evening," said Lenihan.

"In fairness to him, it was he offered to speak to us. I know he's meeting the South African people so we're hoping to meet him after that."

For their part, the Springboks are no different from any other team in the southern hemisphere in that they have a deep suspicion of any referee from the northern hemisphere, whom they see as far more pernickety and fussy in stringently applying the laws.

The penalty counts have been surprisingly high here and in some respects, as Springbok coach Nick Mallett conceded, Morrison's approach won't be that different from South African referees.

"I think he's one of the top referees. In every game I've seen he hasn't really been a concern. My concerns are more to do with the Australian and New Zealand interpretation of the tackle situation.

"Northern hemisphere referees and South African referees blow the tackle situation similarly so I don't anticipate any problem with Mr Morrison."

The contrasting responses to "the Morrison factor" were a barometer of the mood at the two eve-of-match press conferences.

Gatland, along with Donal Lenihan and Paddy Johns, sank into a plush leather couch with his "yippee, it's press conference time' look in the busy foyer of the team's hotel, the Bloemfontein Hotel in the centre of the city. By contrast, Mallett shook hands and exchanged introductions in the sun-kissed stoned garden of the Springboks' peaceful base in the Holiday Inn Garden Court on the outskirts of the town. Whereupon he spoke deliberately and at length in response to every question. Indeed, it's as well that the effusiveness and assuredness of the respective coaches in their handling of their media won't be a barometer of the scoreline in tomorrow's first Test at Bloemfontein. The articulate Mallett, a media godsend, said more in response to his first question than the Irish management said in total half-an-hour or so earlier.

The Irish selection had been "exactly how I expected", said Mallett. "I'm interested to note that they have two very quick guys on the flank. I've been impressed with Andy Ward and I think the hard pitch will suit Dion O'Cuinneagain more than the pitch at Newlands did."

"The second-row is very good and Keith Wood will make a massive difference to the front-row, as he would do for any team and as he did for the Lions. So although the front-row hasn't been one of the most impressive areas of the Irish performances on tour so far I think that will change. So it's a side to respect."

South African management teams tend to do their homework on the opposition more than most, and Mallett has had the added benefit of studying the Irish on their best day of the season in Paris, when the Gatland emblem was first stamped on the Irish team.

"It was excellent rugby, played of that sort. France were trying to play positive rugby but every single time they made a mistake, they found that the ball was put in behind their forwards and behind their backs. And the kicks were very intelligent. They had two men underneath the ball and it's very difficult to launch counterattacks from up-and-unders in the box. They've done it in every game so far, so I can't see they'll be any different in a Test match."

Gatland bridled a bit at the notion that Ireland might be on a damage limitation exercise, even though a defeat in the region of 15 points against the world champions who were rejuvenated by Mallett on their end-of-year, fourTest tour of Europe on which they scored 50 points per game, would generally be construed as a good result in the modern, free-scoring game.

"What are we doing here if we're not looking to win? Most of their players haven't played together for six weeks and they're probably under more pressure than we are to get their team together."

You'd have to wonder how much last Tuesday's thumping defeat to Griqualand West has deflated morale and regenerated any psychological hurdles the Irish had scaled in the previous four games. However, Lenihan maintained: "The fact that it's a Test game makes it totally different from any other game on tour. The majority of the fellas who played on Tuesday aren't involved on Saturday anyway."

Of the 22 on duty tomorrow, all bar David Humphreys trained yesterday, though like those with minor injury concerns, Gabriel Fulcher and Trevor Brennan (both of whom did take a full part in proceedings) he is expected to be fit for the first Test.

It was clear from Gatland's grimace that yesterday morning's closed session hadn't been one of their best. "It was okay; the boys were a bit edgy."