YOU COULD FILL A BATHTUB WITH ALL OF OUR TEARS, SAYS DENTON

Demoralised Denton says defeat will live with squad forever

CRESTFALLEN David Denton claimed last ni ght t hat Craig Joubert’s award of a controversial l ast- minute penalty to Australia had scarred the whole Scottish nation.

The Scotland back-row forward said the defeat would live with him and the rest of his heartbroken team-mates for the rest of their lives.

It was clear what had been lost. A contentious decision had denied the Scots what would have been their greatest ever World Cup victory.

‘I met my family and girlfriend afterwards and you could have filled a bathtub with all our tears,’ said a highly emotional Denton after the Scots went f rom a winning position of 34-32 with just minutes left to lose the game in the cruellest way possible following Bernard Foley’s dramatic kick.

‘I’m not 100-per- cent sure what the rules are but there was a mistake somewhere surrounding that penalty.

‘The fact that you cannot go to the Television Match Official or that the referee did not go to a TMO i s unbelievable. We also noticed that he sprinted up the tunnel at the end.

‘I understand that refereeing the game in front of millions of people is tough but this has affected the rest of our lives and it’s affected a nation.

‘If the regulations state that he can’t go back to the TMO for offside, then that needs to change because that has affected us in a big way.

‘This is the toughest loss of my career. It’s just devastating for us to play the way we did and to not get a result.

‘This will live with us for the rest of our careers, for the rest of our lives in fact.

‘The bounce of a ball has changed at least the next four years of our lives. It’s unbelievable.

‘It’s literally centimetres (the offside at the end) but that’s the nature of professional sport.’

Denton, who has been one of Scotland’s best performers at this World Cup, was not only scathing of the late decision but of Joubert’s overall performance in t he Twickenham quarter-final.

‘ Sean Maitland’s yellow card earlier in the game (awarded for what the official ruled to be a deliberate knock- on) was also overly harsh and at the very most it was a penalty,’ said the Scotland star.

‘When I saw it come up on the big screen, I had the feeling he was going to go against us. It seemed to be that sort of game.’

Denton, however, insisted that he had never played in such a streetwise Scotland side, albeit one that ended up with nothing to show for all their efforts.

But he believed that the future looks bright for a team who, earlier this year, were whitewashed at the Six Nations.

‘I thought the effort by the squad was incredible,’ said Denton.

‘Rugby guys will always put their bodies on the line but what I think we showed today is that we can play clever, we can box smart and that we can be physical.

‘We took the Australians on where they’re good at the breakdown and we won the gainline.

‘We made them play a game that they weren’t comfortable with and we should have beaten one of the ti tl e contenders f or this tournament

‘It will take a while to get over this, of course it will, but once we do that we can build on this World Cup.

‘Vern Cotter has brought out a killer instinct to us. He’s a hard man, he’s a man’s man and that’s how he works.

‘He has been at a very successful club in the past at Clermont and Scotland needed that focus on winning if we were going to move forward.

‘ He’s brought a really solid game plan and now we’re very comfortable in our shape in attack.

‘ We’ve got forwards situated across the pitch, in close, down the middle and out wide and that’s important because you can’t have one- dimensional game plans in rugby.

‘ There’ s also a sense of exuberance and youth to us. There aren’t a great number of caps — 30 is considered a high amount of caps within this squad — so moving forward we’re in a very positive place.

‘Today is a massive blow for us as people but as a team we can move forward.

‘The most important thing — and Vern Cotter mentioned this after the game — is that there are no egos in this side. We want the headlines to be about the team.

‘The Six Nations is just around the corner and it’s a huge target for us because Mark Dodson targeted winning it some years ago and, with this performance today, we’ve put down a statement.

‘We’re not going to get ahead of ourselves — this was one game — but we’ve been building for a long time and we are feeling very positive.’