Referee Luke Pearce let rugby do the talking at the Aviva. More of that, please

Dr Jekyll or Mr Hyde? Will the real Luke Pearce please stand up.

Thankfully, on Friday evening, the Englishman brought the medic’s approach to his performance rather than the good doctor’s alter ego. When any referee is overly loquacious – as Pearce can be – they inevitably become the centre of attention. On this occasion, the referee was much quieter than he often is, particularly in the English Premiership. It is a significant problem for World Rugby when referees take one approach in club competitions and a markedly different one when appointed by World Rugby to officiate in Test matches

As a result of his modus operandi, Pearce had a good enough game in Ireland v Argentina. However, there were a few key moments that he’ll need to review carefully. Had this been a close encounter, the referee would have had a lot of music to face.

When Leonel Oviedo illegally tackled Dan Sheehan, who was on the ground at the time, the referee considered a penalty try but then managed to talk himself out of giving it. It would have absolutely been the right decision. We also had one uncontested scrum, critically on the visitors’ five-metre line, before it was realised that Argentinian prop Boris Wenger could play hooker.

So, someone has screwed up here. The officials dealing with this should have known the situation. Together with their team lists, coaches are obliged to formally identify if they have another player who is capable of playing hooker. And, in his own preparation, Pearce should have made himself aware that it would be possible to play with contested scrums in this eventuality. The uncontested scrum laws are as tricky to navigate as the Strait of Hormuz and it’s unwise for any referee not to have a complete understanding of them. The buck stops with him.

Wenger didn’t look comfortable with the idea, although he has definitely played hooker recently enough. Maybe Pearce needed to interrogate the matter a bit more to fully satisfy himself that everything was in working order. World Rugby would also do well to have a time frame within which a player must have played hooker in order to qualify as the extra man.

Interestingly, there were two incidents which saw a new directive concerning TMO involvement deployed. Only clear and obvious issues are now to be called in to the referee – unexpectedly, it is in line with last week’s column. The yellow card for Argentina’s Efrain Elias was at the behest of TMO Andrew Jackson. It was clearly the correct decision and enabled the proper outcome, even though Pearce had initially decided that the high tackle on Hugo Keenan was a “penalty only”.

Then, when the terrific fullback crossed for one of his tries, it looked like Robbie Henshaw may have obstructed a defender. If that had been called in, there would have been a debate about whether it was or it wasn’t, so the TMO held his counsel.

There was Irish interest in Murrayfield, where Andrew Brace was the referee. Scotland’s first-half performance frightened the living daylights out of New Zealand. At half-time, the home side were just three points behind, 21-24, and none us would have thought for a second that they’d actually fired their last shot. We don’t know if New Zealand coach Dave Rennie applied the Alex Ferguson hairdryer treatment to his charges during the break, but the team were transformed when they reappeared.

While Brace had his work cut out, he did well in a challenging assignment. The visitors were surprised at his decision to produce the yellow card for repeated infringements, but he was correct. When the camera panned to the legendary Richie McCaw sitting in the stand, I wondered what the past master at living on the edge was thinking.

Whatever thoughts he had, New Zealand cannot have too many complaints. Neither did Scotland escape, with captain Sione Tuipulotu also on the receiving end of yellow just before Beauden Barrett scored. It was consistent officiating. Brace is getting some stick around potential dangerous play by Barrett, but the collision seemed to be to the shoulder of Blair Kinghorn.

While Brace was keen on side-entry at defensive breakdowns, he’ll look at several attacking side entries by New Zealand. In general, referees seem reluctant to ping these – it might be that they feel it would mean a lot of penalties. But that’s not so. It would actually achieve a welcome change of player behaviour. I’d also be surprised if Brace is not annoyed with himself for penalising what was, at best, a marginal lineout offence against Scotland. The New Zealand jumper was not affected in any way, so going back to give them a penalty when their subsequent move broke down was definitely two bites of the cherry.

Overall, the weekend saw some great rugby. But it did seem odd that, in the heel of the hunt, only Wales against Japan was a tight affair with the visitors close to an epic victory.

We also saw the use of mouthguards, which indicate the need for a head injury assessment (HIA). These will lead to more of them, and that can only be a good thing. Nevertheless, six HIAs in the Aviva Stadium is a high number that gives cause for concern.

It also confirms the dilemma parents face when choosing if rugby is the right sport for their children. There is no easy answer to that, but many parents have already pressed the unsubscribe button.