Guilty referee ran because he knew he made a dodgy call
GUTTED, totally gutted. That is my over-riding emotion after those unreal 80 minutes at Twickenham yesterday. I am sure that when the dust settles, those feelings will move to pride in a gutsy and brave performance by Vern Cotter’s side — but it is all too raw just now.
To be leading Australia by two points with 90 seconds left in a World Cup quarter-final tells you how well Scotland played — but we couldn’t hold out.
A big reason for that, of course, was the referee’s decision for the last penalty.
What you want from the officials is consistency. Even if they are bad, as long as they’re consistently bad with their decisions, you can play to them.
Craig Joubert was not consistent yesterday and it cost Scotland dear.
Earlier in the second half, there was a ricochet ball that Finn Russell instinctively caught, even when he was in front of the ball but the referee deemed it was accidental, so he awarded a scrum to the Australians.
Why then did he award a penalty at the end when it was an almost identical situation?
I t made no s ense t o me whatsoever and when I saw replays, I am not even sure it was actually a Scottish hand that knocked the ball forward.
This World Cup has been blighted with too many decisions going to the Television Match Official but when the decisions are so big like this one, then why not ask the technology to confirm the referee’s decision?
I am not one to criticise a referee for a team losing a game, but there was a very strange sight when he blew the final whistle. Joubert ran straight down the tunnel and no referee ever does this unless he knows he has made a dubious call during the match.
That reeks of a guilty conscience, for me.
It was a brilliant performance by Scotland. It wasn’t perfect by any means but it was committed, it was brave and i t was f ull of character.
The decision to reinstate Ross Ford and Jonny Gray i n the starting line-up after last week’s disciplinary fiasco was vindicated by a huge pack performance in the first half when they won a number of scrum penalties.
Remember, this was an Australian scrum that dominated England two weeks previously. Everyone in the Scottish pack was good but David Denton was immense, carrying the ball with real bite and breaking the gain line every time he did so.
Scotland did well to withstand an early Australia onslaught and then they produced some of the best rugby I have seen from a Scotland team for quite some time.
There was great interplay between forwards and backs and a real ambition to play a fast, high-tempo game. This takes some commitment at this level and it was great to see.
Peter Horne capped a great personal first-half performance with a canny try, showing great awareness to pick up the ball from within the ruck and run over unopposed. Mark Bennett, meanwhile, dropped an easy pass when he could have run in from the halfway line for a second.
Australia were good, at times very good, and they looked like they could pull away from us in the second half.
But each time they looked like doing so, Scotland forced their way back into the game.
Yes, two tries came from a charge down and an interception but this was because of the pressure Scotland were exerting on Michael Cheika’s clearly rattled team.
When Bennett ran under the posts, Twickenham went wild and I genuinely thought we were going to pull off the greatest result in our history.
The fact that we didn’t was partly down to Scotland not securing their own line-out and partly due to the inconsistency from the referee.
It is easy to judge from the stands, of course, but we didn’t have to throw that last line-out to the back given the circumstances we found ourselves in.
It was that close for us. Win your own line-out, run the clock down for 90 seconds and make your way to a World Cup semi-final.
This has been an impressive World Cup for Scotland and one that has really elevated our position in the world game.
We saw signs in the Six Nations, despite the whitewash, but this was on a much higher level. There is real quality throughout the team and a great balance there.
The players all work exceptionally hard and they look like they enjoy playing for each other, for Cotter, and for the jersey.
They have done the country proud and they fell agonisingly short of making just a second semi-final in Scotland’s history.
I’m still gutted. I will be for some time to come. But I’ m also immensely proud of that performance by our boys.
I’m gutted and will be for some time. But I’m so proud