21/11 The Sports Pages

After Ireland’s 38-18 loss against New Zealand at the Aviva Stadium yesterday, the Sunday Independent runs with the headline ‘Gutsy Ireland fall short’. Despite losing convincingly, it was probably Ireland’s best performance of the Autumn International series, something acknowledged by Declan Kidney.

"It was a mixture of what we've been working at. We got a dry day and a brilliant crowd. But we have to hang onto to the ball a bit better,” the Ireland manager said after the game.

"We had a front five a few years ago that had over 300 caps between them. We have a front five now with maybe 150 caps. You can't buy experience. We lost a couple of lineouts because we went for the difficult throw. Kick-off receipts is something else we'll have to look at.

"Finishing was the difference between the teams. I think we put our defence under enormous pressure by turning the ball over a few times. Maybe pro rata we scored off 50 per cent of our possession which would not be too dissimilar to them.”

In the Daily Record is the revelation that ‘four out of five referees failed 30 question SFA exam’. This news, that 80 per cent of refs did worse than the pass mark of 80 per cent, comes in the wake of a string of refereeing controversies in Scotland.

Over half the referees got a score of 70 per cent or under, while one ref achieved a score of only 50 per cent. "This is unacceptable,” he was told, “we will inform the Referee Committee of your results in the test.

"Concerns will be raised about your lack of knowledge and understanding of the Laws of the Game. The Development Department will furnish you with a test paper as a matter of urgency and you will sit it under examination conditions."