Aussies cry foul over pitch farce
AUSTRALIA’S players were left dumbfounded when they turned up for their final big training session ahead of Saturday’s Murrayfield showdown with Scotland — only to be offered a choice between a sloping cricket pitch and an artificial surface. Booked into train at Edinburgh University’s Peffermill complex, the Wallabies arrived to find that the main rugby pitch was off limits — reportedly being protected for a university game. Head coach Michael Cheika and his staff had been keen to put the tourists through a full session, the last major workout as they look to bounce back from their weekend loss to England at Twickenham. Cheika refused the offer of an outside pitch at Murrayfield, deciding not to put his team’s array of set moves and defensive line-ups on display while literally overlooked by the SRU offices. That left a choice between the cricket oval and an artificial surface. The Aussies plumped for a lighter training run on the plastic, although they were allowed to work through scrum and ruck drills on the in-goal areas of the main field. The training ground foul-up has already prompted a backlash Down Under, with the Courier
Mail reporting the incident as ‘another classic Scottish rugby stitch-up’, comparing the compromise on a ‘farcical’ replacement pitch with thenhead coach Eddie Jones’ claims that the Murrayfield surface had been narrowed by five metres on the eve of Australia’s match there back in 2004.