Rugby 'at a weird stage with officiating' - Murray

Former Ireland scrum-half Conor Murray said that rugby is at a "weird stage" with officiating after Ireland received five cards in their chaotic 24-13 defeat by South Africa.

After James Ryan's yellow card was upgraded to a 20-minute red, Sam Prendergast, Jack Crowley, Andrew Porter and Paddy McCarthy were all sin-binned.

Murray felt that referee Matthew Carley was justified in showing those five players cards, but he suggested South Africa's Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu was lucky to escape punishment for what looked like a no-arms tackle on Tommy O'Brien that could have changed the momentum of the game.

"In my opinion it was a yellow card. I felt he had his arm tucked and he didn't look like he wanted to wrap. In real time and at full speed there was intent and a bit of acceleration towards the end which you naturally do going into a tackle," Murray told the Ireland Rugby Social.

"He just mistimed it or whatever way he saw it. That could have changed things dramatically and as an Irish fan it's very easy to feel hard done by.

"The way rugby is going, and with the rules and technicalities, it seems to be there is head contact, so gone, yellow card, but they have to be looked at separately, it's at a weird stage at the minute with the officiating."

Murray believes that while head coach Andy Farrell and his side will be "frustrated" by defeat and the fact that this Autumn Nations Series "hasn't gone their way", Ireland are still on the right track.

"As an ex-player I can see the level they're capable of and the way they're trying to play and executing it at times," Murray said.

"They won't be too down in the camp; they will be realistic in what they're at and what they need to do to get to the level they want to be at.

"People from the outside will be like 'loss at the start, two wins in the middle and a loss at the end' and will think, is this negative? I really don't think so, I think by the time the Six Nations comes round they will have sorted a lot of things out."

Ireland's next outing will be their Six Nations opener against France in February and Murray is still backing Ireland to compete for the title despite Les Bleus and England showing recent good form.

"Unbelievable Six Nations coming up with the way England are playing, France have been playing for a long time and Scotland... they're all there," Murray said.

"Ireland, I won't be writing them off, but I don't know if people will. They might look at results and not think they are as strong as they were."