Joe Schmidt refused to be drawn into any critique of the referee's performance in the aftermath of Ireland’s 21-9 defeat to New Zealand.
Referee Jaco Peyper awarded the All Blacks the pivotal score without any thought of a television match official (TMO) review.
Beauden Barrett's inside pass offload to TJ Perenara appeared forward, but Peyper, who also took charge of France v Ireland in the 10-9 Six Nations loss in February, waved away captain Rory Best's lengthy protests after Malakai Fekitoa's score.
“I think we were distracted by things that we can’t control and we can’t afford to let that happen,” Schmidt told RTÉ Sport
“There’s no point in being frustrated about [decisions you can’t control].
“You’ve got to get on with the job.
“We’ve just got to forge our way past it, the decisions that get made. We can’t control the TMO giving a decision or the Assistant Referee giving a decision.
“There was a little bit of leftover angst about last time, that we left a few things out against France. We’ve got to be better than that and we’ve got to play what’s in front of us."
He added: "You've got to take heart from our performance that but it's not good enough, losing.
"They were pretty relieved to get off the pitch.
"I thought we probably didn't get the rub of the green on one or two calls, but that's something that can be a distraction.
"We'll leave that to the authorities, we'll feed our feedback through the appropriate channels.
"They'll send out edicts and we'll try to keep the game safe and make it enjoyable.
"The one thing I'd say for the players, they enjoyed rolling their sleeves up and giving it their best shot.
"We are frustrated. To be honest I'm really proud of the effort the players put in."
Joe Schmidt said it was "incredibly disappointing" to fall short today. https://t.co/6EAojbH9aO
— RTÉ Rugby (@RTErugby) November 19, 2016
Ireland were unable to reproduce the form that they showed in Chicago two weeks ago when downing New Zealand for the first time and the loss of three key players in the first half didn’t help.
"We have three guys getting head injury assessments; Rob Kearney, Robbie Henshaw and CJ Stander," said Schmidt.
"It looks like Johnny Sexton has a hamstring issue, so we'll find out in the next couple of days what chance he has of being available for next weekend.
“It’s his other hamstring. So it’s not the previously-injured hamstring, it was the other one. I think having time out of the game won’t necessarily solve that.
"He has got fairly skinny legs, we could put a bit more meat on them maybe, and that might help.
“It’s one of those unfortunate things on the day. He warmed up well, he felt good before the game, I thought he started well in the game and it was disappointing to lose him.
"But I don’t think putting him out of the game for a prolonged period is the solution.
“We’ll get it assessed and whether he’s available next week or not will be determined by the medical staff, who we have a lot of faith in.”
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