Cheika blasts officials on Pumas’ way home
ARGENTINA coach Michael Cheika took aim at the match officials as his Pumas side departed the World Cup having fallen just short against England in the bronze medal game.
Argentina made it a proper contest at Stade de France on Friday night but in the end England won 26-23, having made the best of the Pumas’ lapse of concentration after they scored their second try.
And Cheika wasn’t pleased with the performance of Australian referee Nic Berry.
‘I am disappointed with the way the whole game was run. The way the game was refereed and the consistency,’ the former Leinster coach said after Argentina’s second defeat of this
World Cup against England following their opening loss to Steve Borthwick’s side in the pool phase.
‘Our players have worked for two years to try and get something here. I know we are one of the lower nations. We’re not England, New Zealand or South Africa or any of those guys but at the end of the day, it’s hard.
‘I feel for the lads as they deserved more than what they got out of it.
‘Sometimes I love the game, sometimes I hate it when I look at the game.’
It was, however, a defensive blip two minutes after Santiago Carreras’s superb try that allowed Theo Dan to put England ahead again and Nicolas Sanchez missed the penalty that could have sent the match into extra-time.
‘It was fine margins. Three points. We had a charge down. We hung in there really well, I thought we fought back well,’ Cheika added.
‘We didn’t get the rub of the green on many things but we still stayed in the game. It’s just the way it’s meant to be isn’t it.’
Asked if it was his last game in charge of the Pumas, Cheika replied: ‘I’ll go to Argentina later in the year and we’ll have a talk about how things went and what the future holds.’