Well I’d been getting fed up with all the comments (including a few on here) questioning whether Scotland deserved a place in the quarter finals.

I think I can safely say the answer was yes. If fate had landed ever so slightly differently we would have been worthy semi finalists.

Loosing hurts, but getting some pride and respect back in the way we played – that helps soften the loss a little. Just need to consolidate with a decent 6N and move on from there.

Missed 2nd half on Eurostar. Can’t believe the result as got in train on HT.

Just watching highlights now, but sounds like a proud Scottish performance. Had a great train full of Scots out of London. Great spirits despite being gutted. A real laugh. good on them

Just shown the Maitland sinnbinning – v harsh.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p035krs0?

That was a fantastic Scottish performance, but they should have won it. Great to see them playing a marauding fast paced game, back to the DNA of their game, other nations should take note especially the French.

Penalty kick was for illegal play. Penalty decision to TMO if accidental off side its a free kick or scrum if deliberate penalty. He went to tmo for lots of things but not in the last two minutes.

Anyway result has a win for Australia.

The more interesting reaction seems to be jouberts post whistle sprint.

I’m not defending his performance and I was absolutely gutted that Scotland lost in such circumstances but apparently Joubert ran down the tunnel because he had bottles thrown at him. If true that’s a disgrace and there’s no room for it in this sport.

The first replay certainly looked as though he had a wee wriggle.
Joubert got a lot of things wrong on both sides and was possibly too dependent on the tmo for most of the match.

I could take a loss but we didn’t deserve the last few minutes.

After the Hogg challenge the Aussie kick is directed to the hole left by him not being there

I thought that Aussie try looked fine. An arm stretch, nothing more.

As for the bottles throwing, that wasnt picked up by any commentators?

Surely if Laidlaw had said, “ref I think we might have knocked that on deliberately, do you want to check?”, Joubert could have gone to the TMO.

We need to think faster.

AA – agreed. About the first time I’ve agreed with you. In fact if you’d offered me a heroic performance to come within one point after watching the other 3 QFs I’d have taken it.

Hels – I think we showed the world that if you target Foley he gets nervous – both in defence and kicking. Not quite nervous enough of course, but if he’d kicked decently the game would have been very different.

Given the last few performances of the top 3, I’d say the AB’s are odds on to keep thier title at this stage.

That’s a yellow every day of the week. And if he hadn’t blocked the pass then Mitchell would have taken the pass with no defence in front of him. I’ve seen refs check for penalty tries in exactly that situation.

Interesting that I’ve got a quite different view of the game from a lot on here – but I wasn’t listening to the commentary so wasn’t influenced by biassed presenters.

surely it would only be gauling if they were playing France

🙂

If you go for the ball with one hand as the last man then it’ll always be called deliberate

Just caught up on the thread. What an epic day at Twickenham yesterday, right up there with the weekend in Marseilles for 2007 QF’s. Argentina Ireland on the big screen and then a classic to stand alongside France’s defeat of NZ in 1999

I thought Argentina had a chance but never thought for a moment they’d come out as they did. How many times have we seen a terrific fast start from Ireland put teams under pressure, the tables where turned completely. I’d have to think the hard school that the RC is has moved them onto another level, always strong upfront they now threaten with the backs. Formidable and they have another semi-final to add to 2007 and who is to say they can’t go one better. Any team would miss POC and we can wonder whether he might had steadied the ship a little sooner. Smart and unexpected (?) tactics from Argentina to move the ball wide so early, very bold.

Scotland, the Northern Hemisphere team of the tournament by some margin for that performance. I couldn’t have cheered louder or longer for Scotland than I did, I think the first and last time that will ever happen at Twickenham. The sin bin was extremely harsh, I only saw it on the screen once but it didn’t at all look worthy of a yellow card (@idle he had a very long run in, not a definite try at all). The Aussie try looked fair enough, in front of us and a simple reach forward. Then we have the fateful line out. A long throw was madness, whatever happened afterwards throwing to the back with the reserve Hooker in such a situation is a very high risk manouver. The TMO issue, we have tmo checks for offside on trys (they checked the Argie score) how can you not check a penalty with 2 mins to go in a QF. Joubert is a disgrace, I’ve no doubt we’ll get some YouTube montages in the same was as we have for the 2011 final where the refused to give France numerous penalties in the last few minutes. The guy has a track record and it’s not a good one. I very much hope we don’t see him again. @steven there are no glass bottles in the Stadium, only a few plastic ones. I’m not sure anything would have been thrown at him

The Northern hemisphere teams need to look at themselves very honestly. They where far off the pace and at a home tournament in their backyard. In the last few years (or longer in some cases) wins against the SH sides have been rare and when we come to a real tournament instead of a “friendly” we’ve been far off the pace.

or reduce the sanction to a free kick (i.e. free restart to the attacking side)

But when the attacker is through for a clear try, it’s not fair to allow defenders to gain an advantage (ie re-organise for a scrum) by deliberately spoiling it. Or is it? Is the fact that the defender was able to get a finger to it a legitimate act of defence? It works at lineouts after all, you’re allowed to try and spoil.

Maitland was never going to catch it therefore it’ll always be called as a professional foul (harsh wording but effectively what it is I guess), even though it’d be everyone’s instinct to go for the ball in that situation

If we look back at Campese in the 1994 final that was a deliberate knock on. I though the one yesterday was not even close to a yellow card IMO. We have professionals to make these decisions. What sealed the game was the no TMO decision at the lineout, that’s crazy. I’ve no doubt the laws will be changed on TMO calls after the RWC. It’s been somewhat of an experiment this time and it’s been found wanting. The conversations with the TMO should not be broadcast, it only adds to the pressure.