Andy Farrell was obliged to bite his tongue and make little or no comment on the officiating during New Zealand’s 40-21 win over Ireland in Eden Park, following Gonzalo Quesada’s two-week suspension for comments he made about the refereeing after Italy’s 47-17 loss last week to the All Blacks.The apparent message from World Rugby is that their officials are beyond criticism, publicly at any rate, no matter their performance. Here at Eden Park, the Australian referee Nic Berry and his officials, including TMO Ben Whitehouse, decreed that Luke Jacobsen should only receive a yellow card for launching himself at Josh van der Flier and sticking his elbow out in catching the flanker’s head with his upper right arm.Even more ludicrously, when this decision went to a bunker review, the foul play review officer, Andrew Jackson, of England, somehow decided that Jacobsen’s punishment should remain a yellow, and not be increased to a 20-minute red card. It was the only task he had in the entire game.That must have been all the more galling for the Irish camp considering how Tadhg Beirne’s yellow card for a high hit on Beauden Barrett was wrongly upgraded to a 20-minute red card in Chicago last November, and was subsequently rescinded on appeal. But although they are understood to be furious, when Farrell was asked if he was surprised that it remained a yellow card, he said: “There’s incidents all over the field tonight that you could talk about and we’re not able to do that, so I’ll pass on that one.”[ All Blacks beat Ireland with plenty to spare at Eden Park fortressOpens in new window ]Berry hardly allowed a contest at the breakdown yet awarded Jordie Barrett a key penalty in the jackal when not releasing after tacking Ciaran Frawley, and Farrell could not mask his apparent confusion on that one.“How he was turned over, I don’t know,” said Farrell. “I thought that was a big moment as well because we’re getting back in the game and there’s a bit of flow coming to our game as well. There were a few of them, but the key is not being behind in the first place, to make sure we’re dealing with that first and foremost.”Berry also failed to brandish a yellow card at Quinn Tupaea for a one-handed, deliberate knock-on, which Dan Sheehan appeared to question, and afterwards the Irish captain said: “It was tricky at the time to see it. You’re watching the big screen like everyone else. There’s not much I can do. Ireland's Ciaran Frawley and Joe McCarthy dejected after defeat to New Zealand. Photograph: INPHO/Ben Brady “I’m trying to make sure I put the question to the ref at the right times. I felt like I was there in the conversations a good bit. I’m just a player on the pitch. I have to try to highlight these issues. There’s not much I can do other than that. I’ll have to look it back, to be honest. I don’t know what more I could have done.”There also should have been time for one more play when Berry prematurely ended the game. “We look at the screen, we know that there’s a few seconds left, I don’t know what the explanation is,” said Farrell. “We’re chasing a bonus point. Hopefully we can get an answer.”However, despite the decidedly questionable officiating, Farrell freely conceded that Ireland were well beaten on the night and that they were authors of their own downfall to some degree, albeit there was no doubting their tenacity.Farrell cited “penalties conceded or uncharacteristic poor passing” as the underlining cause for the lack of flow in Ireland’s game.“But how we stuck at it and kept on fighting is there for everyone to see. We saw that in Australia and we got a great win on the back of that, but against the quality of opposition that you’re playing here, you’re going to come off on the wrong side of the result. “It wasn’t just the wrong side of the result – they won pretty comfortably in the end. I suppose the overriding feeling is we’ve got to use it in the right manner for what’s happening in the next 15 months.“If you look back on it, some of our best ballplayers [had errors], that’s why I say uncharacteristic really because it’s something you don’t see on a daily basis or on a weekend either. But that’s what big matches do to you and that’s a lesson that’s got to be learned, that’s for sure.”Ultimately, the 40-21 scoreline was fairly emphatic, although Farrell did not feel it was a fair reflection of where the two sides stand.I don’t think so. We’re disappointed with ourselves, we’re full of pride because of the fight, but we’re disappointed with how it unfolded in the accuracy of a few parts of our game. I think the two sides are certainly closer than that, but I suppose the only thing that matters is how both teams keep on improving over the next 15 months.”Sheehan said it was a frustrating game in that Ireland were productive at times, scoring three good tries and had a strong set-piece, but he cited “uncharacteristic mistakes” and “discipline errors”, which he said were the consequences of being “a bit too desperate and trying to make things happen too much, and that’s just lessons we need to take in”.“The opportunity to play in Eden Park was one that I don’t know if we’ll ever get back. So it’s frustrating that we didn’t really get it all to come together there. I’m proud of the lads, I thought they stuck together really well over the last few weeks. Probably not the season that we really wanted,” said Sheehan of a campaign that saw Ireland win eight out of 12, book-ended by defeats to New Zealand and also losses to South Africa, by an average of more than 14 points.“We saw the improvements at times but if we want to be serious about going on and really pushing world rugby standards, we need to be better. Going into the summer break now for us, obviously rest up, but we need to make sure we’re reflecting properly and get ourselves in the right mindset to attack the next season. We have a bit of improving to do to get there.”