It has been announced this morning that World Rugby has admitted that Craig Joubert got the last penalty decision wrong in the Scots match against Australia. The Scots were livid with the decision and their blood is now boiling after it was confirmed that it should not have been a penalty. Here’s why they shouldn’t be angry.
Wallabies Played all the Rugby
Yes, Scotland were up for the challenge but they didn’t have much attacking flair. As highlighted in depth by Brian Smith in his article, the Wallabies were effective and Scotland pounced on the Wallabies mistakes but didn’t do much with ball in hand.
The Wallabies outscored Scotland 5 tries to 3 with clinical, well executed tries. If it wasn’t for Bernard Foley’s kicking the Wallabies would have been ahead by a lot more.
The statistics back this up. The Wallabies made more runs (111), made more metres (652), made more line breaks (4) and missed less tackles (11).
There Were a Number of Wrong Decisions
Firstly, the opening try from Scotland should not have been awarded and this is something that is often missed by referees. There are actually two offside lines at the ruck and the attacking team must be behind the last feet (law 16.5 (a)). You can join a ruck by binding onto a player using the whole arm (law 16.2 (b)), putting your hand on someone’s back does not count as being a part of the ruck. As you can see below, Peter Horne is well in front of the last feet of the ruck and he is not joined to the ruck as is therefore offside as he picks the ball up.
Law 15.6 (d):
“At a tackle or near to a tackle, other players who play the ball must do so from behind the ball and from directly behind the tackled player or the tackler closest to those players’ goal line.”
It wasn’t the most dominant Aussie scrum and the Scots were strong but there were also a lot of scrum penalties which could have gone either way. All scrum penalties were awarded to Scotland.
The Scots shenanigans at the scrum were great. Check out their 6 here, binding on Scott Fardy! pic.twitter.com/WG5p4tW6YZ
— Hugh Cavill (@hughcavill) October 19, 2015
Finally, the exact same incident happened moments earlier in the match but Joubert ruled that it was an accidental offside when it should have been a penalty awarded to the Wallabies.
Dear @WorldRugby will you be apologising to Samoa over the bad ref call that saw Scotland beat them? — WallabyJesus (@waratahjesus) October 19, 2015
Wallabies Were the Form Side
Scotland had already suffered a heavy loss to South Africa and were almost beaten by Samoa so they would have counted themselves pretty lucky to have made it to a semi-final. Meanwhile, Australia defeated England and Wales and finished at the top of their pool and if anyone deserves a semi final spot, it should be them. They should not feel lucky to have won this test match.
I look forward to World Rugby’s public review of the 931 other debatable calls at this World Cup so far.
— Iain Payten (@iainpayten) October 19, 2015
Greig Laidlaw was obviously disappointed after the match but he didn’t give any credit to the Australian side that won the match. His interview was reminiscent of Mike Brown’s post match interview after England lost to Scotland. This is in stark contrast to Sam Warburton who was all class in his post match interview after Wales went down in a close match to South Africa.
