Cheika cries foul, Schmidt rejoices

A frustrated Michael Cheika has demanded a meeting with World Rugby referees boss Alain Rolland after watching the Wallabies’ grand slam dream shattered by a three-point loss to Ireland in Dublin.

Ireland coach Joe Schmidt, meanwhile, hailed the victory as one of his proudest days after assembling a patched up squad.

The hosts won 27-24 in a thrilling contest at the Aviva Stadium, but Cheika was furious at the lopsided penalty count which finished 13-3 in Ireland’s favour.

Despite copping the worst of the French referee Jerome Garces’ whistle, Australia mounted a stirring second-half comeback to recover from trailing 17-0 in the 39th minute to owning the lead 18 minutes later.

Australia scored three straight tries to hold an unlikely lead with 20 minutes remaining - before Ireland’s Keith Earls scored the match-winning try in the 66th minute and the home side defended grimly for the win.

But Cheika remained aggrieved at the refereeing performance and insisted it had taken too much out of his side.

‘‘I thought we played a lot of footy in the end but we but we got penalised a lot, didn’t we?’’ Cheika fumed.

‘‘[It was a] 13-3 penalty count and that costs you field position, costs you territory and obviously points as well.

‘‘You can’t win a test match if you’re giving away that many penalties or that big a difference between the two teams. Impossible.’’

Cheika made it clear he would be taking his concerns through the official channels before next week’s season-ending test against England at Twickenham.

‘‘That’s something I’ll be dealing with Alain Rolland about afterwards,’’ Cheika said.

‘‘I’ll go through the proper channels as opposed to making it an issue out here and see if we can get something but I doubt it.’’

Schmidt had said he wanted to try a few things against Australia to prepare for the Six Nations but playing with a third-choice first five-eighth at fullback and replacement halfback on the wing were probably not among them.

Yet Ireland survived a slew of injuries and an Australian comeback to claim a third southern hemisphere scalp in six months.

‘‘It certainly for me would be one of the proudest days, with a team that has shown immense character.

‘‘It wasn’t perfect but you probably can’t expect perfection when those young guys step up,’’ Schmidt told a news conference.

‘‘Simon Zebo said it was like the creche out there, he was the old guy looking after the kids running around and it’s probably reflective of how much control he has as a dad because the kids were all over the place.’’

- Reuters, AAP