Ireland left Norwich Park in Newlands in a state of high dudgeon after the focus of their anger, Natal referee Jonathan Kaplan, had reduced the game to almost a state of high farce.

Donal Lenihan had wasted little time in venting the Irish spleen over Kaplan's performance at the post-match press conference. Warren Gatland weighed in even more vehemently and agreed that neutral referees for all touring games is the only solution.

"I don't see why not. They do it in Super 12s so why not do it with touring sides? There's a number of good referees around the circuit they could easily use and then we'd have no excuses. We could then say we were disappointed but I was absolutely disgusted with the referee's performance today."

Highlighting that last line-out, Gatland asked: "To give the penalty, why didn't he do it as the ball was being thrown. Why did he wait until we had caught it and it was moving forward?" In about a dozen occasions with either Connacht or Ireland, it's the first time this innovative ploy has found fault with a referee.

That Kaplan should later extol the discipline of Paddy Johns and the Irish team until near the end was ironic given what he said to the Irish management 45 minutes before the match. He had watched their prior games on tour and told them that he had been disappointed with their discipline. The ensuing penalty count of 19-9 rather reinforced the Irish management's view that what followed was if not premeditated, then preordained.

About 45 minutes after the game Warren Gatland went up to Cape Town's prodigal son on the day, Dion O'Cuinneagain, and informed him that now he knows what it's like to be on the receiving end of South African referees.

"I guess I know what he means now," said a bitterly disappointed O'Cuinneagain back at the team hotel on Saturday night. "I just thought that every time we got into a good position he penalised us for reasons which weren't explained or justified. I've always been in the lucky position as a home-town player. This is the first time I've really had a taste of the other side of it, and it doesn't taste nice."

All the key decisions seemed to go against Ireland, and O'Cuinneagain lamented the biggest three. There was his own 16th minute try that wasn't when he was at the focal point of one of many brilliantly controlled lineout drives; O'Cuinneagain remaining adamant that he had grounded the ball before being levered off the ground. In fairness, the TV replays couldn't prove it, though Kaplan wasn't exactly inspecting the scene with a microscope.

Then there was the penalty against Paul Wallace for supposedly a "no arms" tackle on Chester Williams prior to Allen Clarke's block, gather and inventive little chip for Denis Hickie to score. And then, most famously, there was the last minute 13-man line-out, the ball already having been gathered by Malcolm O'Kelly and the drive was on whereupon Mr Kaplan ruled that some backs had joined in after the line-out had been formed.

Aside from all of that, there was the three scrum penalties against Paul Wallace, the mystifying penalty against Victor Costello for a turnover tackle and more besides; and overall an increasing and palpable sense from long way before the end, that no matter what happened Ireland were not going to be allowed to win.

Ill-disciplined? Humbug. The one thing this Irish side prides itself on is its discipline, as typified by their mild-mannered captain Johns - not least when he didn't respond to being unjustifiably kicked on the ground by WP fullback Justin Swart. Lenihan could be seen engaging one of the touch judges then, who merely gave a curt "go away".

The officials' performances completely overshadowed and detracted from what could have been a memorable game. "The disappointment of the loss is far outweighed by the disappointment of the refereeing performance," said Galtand. "I mean our guys in there aren't feeling `we blew it', they just felt they were robbed by decisions that didn't go their way."

His counterpart, Alan Solomons, attributed perceived Irish injustices over Kaplan's display to the difference in refereeing styles between the northern and southern hemispheres. He pointed out that Western Province had suffered a "14-0 penalty count against Queensland from Colin Hawke." Seemingly, lob-sided penalty counts for home teams are regarded as more a way of rugby life down here.

Solomons did express his anger over a prior under-19 match going ahead (curiously, a barefoot game of mini rugby was cancelled) on the sodden pitch despite his own pleas to the contrary. He complimented Ireland on being a "well-coached, well-organised side who do the basics well" and regards them as more competitive than Scotland or Wales right now. And for that matter, most of all poor old England.

Once again, the defence was excellent, the outstanding Malcolm O'Kelly, Paddy Johns and Andy Ward leading the way in a hardworking pack. They all did their bit, Justin Fitzpatrick putting in a high tackle count, the front-row in general competing well while O'Cuinneagain had a good all-round game, utilising his positional sense to use the ball productively

Conor McGuiness still hasn't clicked on tour and needs to improve the accuracy of his box-kicking as well as his general sharpness. Outside of them, David Humphreys led the line up and tackled brilliantly, even forcing a few turnovers. One covering slide onto a loose-ball stood out and probably saved a try.

Invariably Mark McCall and Kevin Maggs were practically impenetrable. Justin Bishop looked for work, kept moves alive, tackled well and almost broke through in a fine first effort. Conor O'Shea covered and ran well, but had one of his erratic, seemingly unsure days in the green.

But generally, Ireland's better work was without the ball rather than with it, and are clearly going to have to expand their options in possession so as to get more out of Hickie. That said, their tactics were probably best suited to the conditions and Humphreys carried them out very well.

Overall though, both the conditions and the referee made this an almost useless barometer for the first Test. The high veld, the high sun and, thank the lord, a neutral referee in Ed Morrison. Praise the Englishman?

Scoring sequence: 33 mins - Koen pen 30; 47 - Humphreys pen 3-3; 52 - Koen pen 63; 72 - Koen pen 9-3; 74 - Humphreys pen 96; 80 - Johns pen 12-6.

Western Province: J Swart; C Williams, R Fleck, C Stewart, B Paulse; L Koen, J Adlam; T van der Linde, J van Wyk, K Visagie, S Boome, H Louw, R Brink, A Aitken, B Skinstad. Replacements: C Marais for van Wyk (40 mins), P Arnold for Brink (half-time), M Hurter for Visagie (54 mins), L Blom for Louw (60 mins), M Kirsten for Adlam (67 mins).

Ireland: C O'Shea; J Bishop, K Maggs, M McCall, D Hickie; D Humphreys, C McGuinness; J Fitzpatrick, A Clarke, P Wallace, P Johns, M O'Kelly, D Corkery, D O'Cuinneagain, A Ward. Replacements: V Costello for Corkery (54 mins), P Clohessy for Fitzpatrick (73 mins).

Referee: J Kaplan (Natal).