Rugby 'broken' by officiating and long games - Ferris

Former Ireland international Stephen Ferris said that he felt that rugby was "broken" while watching Ireland's 24-13 defeat against South Africa due to the officiating.

Referee Matthew Carley showed Ireland five yellow cards, in a game which lasted over two hours.

After James Ryan's yellow card was upgraded to a 20-minute red card, Sam Prendergast, Jack Crowley, Andrew Porter and Paddy McCarthy were all sent to the sin-bin for infringements as the hosts played with 12 players for 10 minutes in the second half.

And Ferris, who won 35 caps for Ireland, says World Rugby need an urgent review to tackle the increasing stop-start nature of international rugby games.

"World Rugby needs to find a way to not make a game of rugby 132 minutes long," he told BBC Sport NI's Stephen Watson.

"I have had a lot of people message me to say they got bored during the game and especially when you're trying to bring kids, their attention span can be short at the best of times, we have to make it fast and quick.

"In Dublin it felt like the game was broken, I didn't have a clue what was going on and if I didn't have a notion what was going on sitting on the sideline, then what did the other 52,000 people in the Aviva think. It was just a mess.

"A large part was down to Ireland of course, because of their ill-disciple, the yellow cards and the multiple penalties at scrum-time, but I feel if there was a Nigel Owens [former Welsh referee] in charge of that game it would have been handled a lot differently, there would have been more consistency and free-flowing rugby that we want to pay to go watch."

Ireland finished the Autumn Nations Series with two wins (over Japan and Australia) and two losses (against New Zealand and South Africa) in what Ferris described as "disappointing" November for Andy Farrell's side.

They will not be in action again until February, when they face holders France in their opening game of the Six Nations in Paris and Ferris admitted the likes of Les Bleus and England currently look in better shape to challenge for the title than Ireland.

"I think there are always concerns when you look at other teams who are doing really well and look to be further ahead on this Rugby World Cup cycle," he added.

"Six Nations is about getting as high up the table and Ireland's objective will be winning it. There is a lot of prize money to be played for which helps fund the union and takes pressure off.

"Taking everything into consideration, I think Ireland will be one of the favourites, but there is a little part of me is worried about the other teams because we are away in the first game to France and if you get off to a tricky or negative start that can impact you going forward, I've been there and done it."