"Inch by inch, play by play, till we're finished."

As with many sports, the distance between victory and defeat in Rugby can be measured in inches. When Shane Horgan placed the ball in his out-stretched arm over the line scoring a last minute try to defeat England in the 2006 Six nations, the joke going around Dublin was that had Horgan been 6’ 3” rather than 6’ 4”, Ireland would have lost. But Shane Horgan is 6’ 4” and that last inch was enough to get the ball over the line for seven points. The difference between victory and defeat was 2 points, but it was that one inch that made the difference.

But at least Horgan’s try was not contentious. As frustrated as all English fans were at the score there was no doubt that the try was legitimate. There have been many moments in Rugby were a team has been rightly aggrieved at a try or penalty that should not have been awarded, and as many English fans will quickly point out, Horgan’s earlier try in the very same six nations match should not have been awarded, the touch judge failed to spot the ball had made contact with the touchline before Horgan hacked it forward to score.

Every rugby fan can recall a moment when their team come out on the wrong side of decision but given the incredibly physical nature of the game, the interpretation of ruck, maul and scrum and the simple fact that much of the game seems to involve piles of hands and feet all over the ball, it is a wonder that officials manage to officiate the game as well as they do. Mistakes will be made, referees will be taken advantage of and teams will be fortunate and unlucky, but as long as it happens in equal measure, the game continues.

But every now and again, there is a moment that is so clearly wrong and within the capabilities of players and officials to prevent that it becomes a talking point for the whole game. One of those moments occurred in the Wales versus Ireland match yesterday. A player illegally restarted play and the officials failed to understand what was happening. That mistake directly led to a score that changed the course of the game. The mechanics of the incident are not in doubt, nor is there any question that it was ilegal. Players and officials should know the rules, but in this case it seems that the only people on the pitch who understood the rules, conceded seven points.

We have to accept that in the heat of play, mistakes will be made and that on some of those occasions teams will be hard done by, but it is hard to accept when play has stopped and the people there to ensure fair play so clearly fail to do there job.

It makes no difference that the winning manager accepts it was wrong, or that some players described an incident of breaking the rules as “nice to have a bit of luck”, 55,000 Welsh fans won’t care that a moment of cheating followed by the officials' incompetence was the difference between their team winning and losing.

At the end of the day the championship table records the win, not the circumstance.