Rennie complains to rugby chiefs over ‘horrendous’ calls

At the Principality Stadium

Wales 29-28

Australia plan to contact World Rugby to complain about key decisions against the Wallabies during their European tour, after head coach Dave Rennie described the officiating in Australia’s defeat by Wales as “horrendous”.

Rennie’s main gripe was the decision by referee Mike Adamson and television match official Marius Jonker to allow Nick Tompkins’ second-half try for Wales.

Tompkins knocked the ball to the ground while intercepting a pass by Hunter Paisami, before picking it up and running clear to score. Australia were convinced the ball had been knocked forward, while the referees ruled otherwise. In a similar incident, Kurtley Beale, Australia’s

Culpability: Australia head coach Dave Rennie wants officials to be accountable for their errors, which can change a game’s outcome

full-back, was shown a yellow card in the first half for a deliberate knock-on.

Rennie, speaking to the media, claimed he had never spoken out against referees in 20 years as a head coach, but felt he had to following Australia’s loss, even if it resulted in a sanction from World Rugby.

“No doubt [I could be sanctioned], but how do I support our team? By biting my lip again and us getting apologies during the week?” Rennie said. “It doesn’t change the result. The boys emptied the tank for each other, and we deserved a better result than that.

“It’s important that I speak my mind. I’ve been a professional coach for 20 years, and I’ve never gone in the media and had a crack at a referee or the referee group, but I felt I had to tonight.” Australia were unhappy with Jonker following their defeat by Scotland, after tighthead prop Allan Alaalatoa was shown a yellow card, ruling out a try for Michael Hooper in the process.

World Rugby later told the Wallabies that Alaalatoa should not have been yellow-carded for an alleged swinging arm.

“I look back at Marius’s decision to sin-bin Allan Alaalatoa against Scotland during the week – we were told that was the wrong decision,” Rennie said.

“It wasn’t a yellow card. They are big moments. Getting an apology during the week isn’t good enough. If we are going to have a TMO, there is no excuse for not getting the decision right, and we saw another example of that tonight.

“Everyone is accountable, or they should be. Certainly we are. We want to make sure the officials are also accountable. So, Marius’s decision a couple of weeks ago decided a game, yet he was appointed again.

“Is there any accountability around guys making errors that are deciding Test matches?”

Tompkins’ try helped Wales open up a 23-13 lead, and they spent most of the Test with a man advantage following Rob Valetini’s 15th-minute red card.

But Wales nearly threw that advantage away after well-taken tries from Nic White and Filipo Daugunu, followed by a Beale penalty, gave Australia the lead with two minutes left, until Rhys Priestland stepped up with a penalty to secure Wales’s second win of the autumn.

Ellis Jenkins, the Wales captain, said: “The plus is the win. “We definitely made it hard for ourselves. It looked like we were chasing the game, really, so definitely a bit to work on there, but we are happy with the win.”

Given their injuries, with close to 20 players missing, Wales should be considerably more competitive come the Six Nations.