Rate the match between Australia and Scotland in the Rugby World Cup quarter-final at Twickenham, and leave your thoughts on the game in the comments section below.
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Rate the match: Australia vs Scotland, RWC 2015
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Well done ref!!!! Where is your yellow shirt!!!
I feel genuinely depressed today. Not only are Ireland out, but as usual the refs have left a bitter after-taste in the game I love, like they’re trying to take the game away from us with their non ref skills. Scotland were robbed, end of discussion.
Australia lost that game more than Scotland won it, but they surely did lose it. They blew it with cocky mistakes that Scotland were undoubtedly prepped to exploit. And Joubert let them off the hook. It’s wrong.
Breaking the rule of a lifetime here but can’t keep quiet.
Joubert was a disgrace. The yellow card. The offside pen that wasn’t even a clear knock on. Even if it was then earlier in the match he gave scrums for accidentals. I have no idea what was going on his head but the actions amount to a constructed approach to get Aus over the finish line. Shocking. I find it quite hard to digest it. I know this isn’t soccer. I know whining about the ref is crap. I know all this but I cannot get past it. I’ve never seen such a clear result delivered by a ref. Such a travesty. We cannot let respect for the officials prevent a needed investigation into this.
I agree. Joubert is a dick. Laidlaw looked a new level of gutted and he’s right. Scotland raised their game for the quarters and deserved to win. The frustrated Australia and took advantage of their sloppiness but it didn’t matter because Joubert stuffed up.
Massive respect Scotland. It should really have been 1 nh team in the semis and I think you would have beaten the Argies.
Completely agree.
Hate to even think it. But are refs under pressure to favour to top tier sides for commercial reasons; much like the obvious favouring taking place in the citing decisions. Really hope I’m way off the mark but it looked as though Joubert was willing Aus over the line.
Thought Scotland had done it. Unlucky at the end! If only Scottish player hadn’t handled in offside position to give away the penalty.
Australia aren’t good enough to win RWC! NZ or SA for me.
Had me going for a second there – I ran to the wardrobe to get out the sporran and kilt.
Up the Jocks! Aye mon.
I’m not sure whether the penalty was the right call, and that’s 20 mins after, and I referee. It’s always a cruel offence which doesn’t deserve a penalty in my book. He should have at least TMO’d it. Poor game from a ref who I have never rated as high as the IRB do.
Alex has a point. England made Aus looked stunning but since then they’ve scraped through against two teams who weren’t close to World Cup challengers. Can’t see past NZ but would happily back Argentina to create the upset of a lifetime.
A bit like how France made Ireland look good! England were awful and would have lost heavily against any of those teams. They offer no creativity in attack. All NH teams are lacking.
Sort of agree. England were completely woeful so yes we made Aus look good.
It was however, the last time Hooper and Pocock played together. Between the two of them they just managed to consistently turn the ball over at the right time, halting any attacking momentum England may have generated. Expect them to be back in tandem, as well as Folau being back next week against Argentina.
With those two in tandem, they beat NZ recently enough. I’m expecting a NZ Aus final.
Well Scotland made me eat my prediction of an easy Aussie win. Well done. Have some sympathy with the “they were robbed” camp but looking at the game overall, I still felt the aussies were the better team. Can’t see past NZ myself. SA a bit lumbering, aussies creaked when they didn’t have dominance up front, and NZ have already beaten Argentina.
Cheers Brighty.
Damn it, damn it, damn it! Every team I cheer on loses.
On the evidence of this weekend Argentina can make a final. We could have 3 RWCs in a row where two teams from the same pool contest the final.
Only plus side to this NH wipeout is an increased chance of picking up some final tickets…
Joubert is the obvious choice to ref the final. (Only joking) Even ignoring the fact of not checking with the TMO, which in the circumstances of the importance of the decision was crass, I bet most of the rugby aficionados who contribute to this blog probably thought the decision was wrong.
oops my mistake, sad for Scotland but apparently the TMO can’t be used to determine if a penalty should or shouldn’t be given.
That’s what sets a great ref apart form an average one. If in doubt, scrum down in favour of the team that “might” have been impeded against.
I saw that is what the law stipulates but we’ve seen TMO used for high tackles, and whether or not it warrants a penalty, so surely that rule is void?
High tackles are foul play and TMO is to be used to determine if further action than a penalty is required. For regular knock on/offside decisions they are catagorically not allowed to call on the TMO.
Ref still got it wrong which was unfortunate for Scotland but I’m not convinced by the conspiracy theorists
Scotland was the best side today but the 16th man decision robbed them of what should have been their semi-final.
Australia can thank Mr Joubert . This decision without any TMO check two minutes before the end of the match remains very very doubtful.
Congratulations to the real winners of this match: Scotland
No doubt he made the wrong call. From what I saw, Hardie knocked on followed by a Phipps knock on — advantage over, scrum gold, the offsides penalty shouldn’t have even come into play.
Having said that, this wasn’t something Joubert could have gone to the TMO for. TMO is used to decide if a try has been scored or to investigate suspected foul play, that’s it.
Correct, I got that wrong and I was a ref (long before TMOs I must add)
Travesty. Joubert should never ref at this level again, he clearly had a good view of the ball hitting Phipps before Nel handled it and awarded the penalty anyway. That is incompetent refereeing. To then ignore the protests, the replays on the big screen, refuse to consult the TMO and then hurriedly leave the pitch brings the entire tournament into disrepute. Commiserations to Scotland, easily the best game of the tourney and deserve to be in semi finals, excellent to see them playing competitively again.
Never in the many years I’ve watched the sport has I seen such an even and enthralling game come down to a blatantly wrong decision by the ref in the dying moments.
I understand there’s an argument to say he can’t refer to the tmo – but if he can’t refer that one how could he refer the yellow card of maitland? There was no foul play and it wasn’t a try scoring opportunity ! Inconsistent, not in the spirit of rugby and then to run off the pitch at the end means he should not referee an international again. There is no excuse for running away
Aside for the rights or wrongs of the yellow card and the final penalty, the way he ran off the pitch at the end is the biggest disgrace – he knew what he had done and didnt want to stay around and face the music!
I like the transparency of this world cup. It’s forced refs to be more accountable. Owens has been the best ref so far. Joubert let himself down a bit. Barnes has been poor but that’s normal for him.
I was at the stadium, probably the best rugby experience I had so far, atmosphere was amazing with Scottish fans all around the place, great rugby and passion … It was all there except Joubert, it s easy to point the ref but it s not the first time he is so in favor of southern hemisphere team. I feel sorry for Scottish, U guys can be proud of your team
The final play of the game was a terrible decision : no one could see in real time what happened, so the default should be a scrum yellow. The decision to bin Maitland was totally wrong- he was obviously trying to get possession of the ball. Why is nobody noticing the very late hit on Hogg after he cleared late in the game? It’s always the same: the S/H teams get all the decisions. Houbert a total disgrace.
Quite agree with you on the hit on Hogg, should have been a penalty and a yellow, other refs have given that!!!
Yellow?!
That’s Australian Gold old son!
Speaking of Yellow, the card on Maitland was an awful call.
Joubert had a shocker, plenty of his calls during the match were questionable and helped Scotland as much as hindered.
He is loathed in Australia and after last week, putting two Aussies in the sin bin simultaneously, is hardly pro-Wallabies.
Scotland played their hearts out and were unlucky in the final few minutes, but even if you account for the ref, I’d say they stayed in touch with the game as a result of Australian brain explosions rather than being ‘the better team’, as it were.
Christ I hope Pocock is fit this weekend!!
Haha no its canary yellow mate.
No wonder theres 2 Australian dollars to the pound if thats the colour of Australian gold :-)
Crap ref or not, what a game of rugby, the best game in a great World Cup!
The first game where one team can legitimately say ‘we wuz robbed’
haha, and wasn’t it due..
Robbed by incompetence, no other way of expressing total disappointment in the final outcome of a great game ruined by j,
A jez the whingindg jocks lol. yellow card was fully correct as scottish player had 3 fingers out and his hand pointed downwards and was never going to catch the ball , so yellow was fully justified in fairness, Whinging jocks seem to forget that the aussies had a try disallowed in the second half for a very dubious knock on and interecpt try was actually from an off side position , so if anybody the wallabies had a fair case to whinge at mr joubert but the scots as usual are hard done by .
Suck it up fellas, Scotland were bloody lucky to be in it at all. Aus scored 5 tries to three and had an unlucky night with the boot.
Both sides were pretty unfortunate with Joubert’s calls. Aus especially so at the breakdown and the scrum. The last penalty was 50-50 that went Australia’s way. The previous scrum collapse should have been an Aus penalty.
As all Scots tries were scored from opportunism from Australia’s mistakes, rather than constructed attacking play, it’s hard to say that Scotland ‘deserved’ the win.
It’s an 80 minute game. The Jocks had their chances. And lost.
Great game-Scotland unlucky-but the show goes on-Roll on the semis-All Blacks all the way! Argentina looking good too.
Scotland’s performance with their limited resources showed England’s failure in even starker terms.Quality of coaching a major difference with no league influence
You’re up by 2, 3 mins to go and you throw a long lineout? All that was required was up the jumper stuff.
Joubert may have been harsh in the extreme giving the penalty but why on earth did they give him that opportunity. A terrible call – on a par with Robshaw’s.
Scotland played great knockout rugby until the last 3 minutes of the game. Their failure in exit strategy from the kickoff after the try ultimately led to the line out. With the Gray brothers, Denton and Strauss in the side they had enough options to secure critical line-out ball in their danger zone. Pressure caused the judgement error that went for the speculative long throw and the subsequent loss of control.
All being said, Scotland can hold their head high, having performed like that after a bad Six Nations campaign. They have only lost two games, and the last was marginally! The core of the team is young, that bodes well for the future of Scottish Rugby!
I can certainly understand Scotland feeling hard done by. They played a great game. All the same 5 tries went over and one questionably disallowed as well as 3 conversions. Whilst Scotland capitalised on some poor Aus play their tries were not from anything they had set up. Add into the mix 3 conversions that went missing. This week will see the return of Pocock and again the style that brought England undone. Joubert…..guys, look st his track record against Australia. This is the first time in 8 matches he’s done the Wallabies a favour. Look at the comments before the Aus v Wales match when he was announced as a the ref. Finally, the rest of the world is waking up to see that he’s not at this standard. Look at the other refs in the 1/4rs they all had great games. This guy confirmed he’s a joke with the way he scurried from the pitch. Sorry it had to happen to the jocks, would have been much nicer and even more hard done by crying in beer if it had been England.
RedBlack has a point, fair play to the Jocks for going for it but I think the scoreline flattered them. They were capitalising on an unusually error-strewn Aussie performance, and didn’t create a lot of their own opportunities.
As for the ref, it’s easy to take the short-sighted soccer attitude and say “we wuz robbed” but would that penalty decision have seemed that harsh if it was in the 20th minute, or if Scotland had been 20 points down (which let’s face it we all expected them to be)? It was wrong, and yes the yellow was harsh, but that’s the way it goes. Joubert is only human, and all this nonsense about refs being under pressure to favour the Southern Hemisphere is just that.
I get that Scotland are hurting, but Logan et al’s comment about how Joubert should not ref at this level again are a disgrace.
And frankly if I was staring down the wrath of 50,000 furious Scotsmen I’d run down the tunnel pretty sharpish too!
Its the rugby, what’s going to happen? When was the last time you saw a fight at the rugby let alone a pitch invasion to attack a ref?
He knew he’d made the wrong decision and rather than back himself, he sprinted off. Can you imagine Barnes or Owens acting the same way?
As for all this ‘Scotland didn’t create their own opportunities’ – what a load of rubbish that is. You make your own luck, especially at this level. Aus mistakes were forced by the pressure that Scotland had them under. Scotland still had to score the tries – it was pressure on the Aussie tryline that lead to the gap for Horne, it was pressure on Foley and a superb off-load from Russell that created Seymour’s try and it was great vision from Bennett to pick off Slipper’s pass
As for the incorrect decisions that have enraged people, one is understandable – three suggests a poor performance. The yellow card should have been no such thing, the late hit on Hogg was unnoticed by a TMO who seemed to spot everything else and the last clearly came off Phipps (I accept that the ref was unsighted for that but if he could not clearly see what had happened then he should not have called ir for deliberate off-side)
Seen some comments about how Scotland only in it because of interception tries, dodgy penalties, capitalising on errors etc. So to fix that
– interception tries only worth 3 pts
– if the ref isn’t 100% nailed on it’s a pen he can give a 1 or 2 pt pen shot depending on his certainty
– if the ball doesn’t go through the hands at least 5 times then try is only worth 4 pts and no conversion attempt
– clean line break tries are worth 6 pts, with 3 pts for the conversion
– bonus pts can be awarded for artistic merit for tries
– disallowed tries for “minor” offences (knock ons, forward passes by 1 or 2 degrees) score 2 pts for the effort
– …….
All a bit stupid isn’t it? Just as stupid as pooh poohing Scotland’s performance because they scored less tries and one was *only* an interception…
As for the “dubiously” disallowed try? I don’t understand this. Genia knocks the ball on. Clear as day.
Anarky has it spot on – Scotland lost the match because they didn’t exit their own 22 when they were in the lead. Poor attempt from the restart, shocking lineout and then total panic.
Yes, I started off by saying how sick I was at this incompetent refereeing, compounded by the hysterically dramatic dash off the pitch by him at the end. In the cold light of day I can see it was more a case of poor Scottish execution at the end. Still think Joubert is incompetent and his mistakes seem to favour SANZAR sides (world cup final 07) but I think that is just another side of his incompetence. He’s not bent – just seems unable to cope with the pressure.
HI all, Aussie here, so I am not unhappy about the result, particularly when I thougt we’d lost it 2 minutes from the end. I do think, however, there is a lot of whining here. We scored 5 trys to 3. We had a try disallowed in an equally dubious decision. The Scots had every opportunity to beat the Aussies especially when Fowley was not in form, missing his fiirst 3 kicks at goal. All the Scots really needed was another try….. end of discussion. Yes the ref decision was technically wrong but I defy any of the moaners to be able to spot it under those circumstances….. anything but obvious and the ref was not able to go to TMO, unlike the armchair refs on here. I’ll end with a very sincere, ‘bad luck’ to the Scots. You gave us a brilliant game and now fully desereve your new position in the world top 8 of rugby. Keep it up guys.
I still don’t get how the Aussie disallowed try was ‘dubious’ in any shape or form. Genia clearly knocked the ball on – it was called back for review and upon replay, it was obvious what had happened.
As for Scotland needing one more try – true. Although Aus would have had one less without the awful yellow card decision.
In the end Scotland lost because as Brighty and Anarky have pointed out, they couldn’t get out of their 22 in the last few moments. Had they done so, Joubert would not have been given the chance to make another poor decision and it would be Scotland playing Argentina next week
Joubert has a track record…he bottledit in the RWC 2011 final as he was too afraid to give the French the penalties against the ABs all through the match.
Yesterday he clearly changed from giving a scrum to a penalty when all the Aussies yelled at him with their arms aloft. He moves his arm to signal penalty AFTER signalling scrum.
The man should never be allowed to ref at international level ever again. He was biased in the pool game decider for pool A because he wanted SA to play Wales as opposed to Australia playing the Boks.
Too many times I have seen referees rob teams and they never, ever get held to account.
This has been going on for far too long.
Remember 2007 Italy v Wales and ‘You time for the lineout………….Np I’ve changed my mind now you’ve kicked the ball out Game over’.
That was even worse than yesterday!
Anyone watching the Pro12 will see how biased the Irish refs are to Irish sides.
Joubert is a total disgrace but the Referee Panel at World Rugby are even more to blame for allowing him to ref after the 2011 RWC final.
What I find particularly interesting is the total silence from the RWC authorities (or have I missed something?) if the final decision was the correct one surely they should be backing up their man…
If the referee was unsighted could he not have asked his officials for guidance or asked for a video replay? Surely the correct decision would have been to award a scrum for the knock on unless the replay showed a clear offside
He buckled under the pressure…