AUSTRALIA WERE FUMING after tonight’s game against Wales went against them in Cardiff.
However, Wales boss Wayne Pivac said he had no doubt about the legality of Nick Tompkins’ key second-half try after his team beat Australia 29-28 in Cardiff.
Wallabies full-back Kurtley Beale was sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on after 22 minutes, with Australia briefly reduced to 13 players with number eight Rob Valetini having received an earlier red card following a dangerous tackle on Wales lock Adam Beard.
Australia head coach Dave Rennie was furious after the final whistle, telling Amazon Prime Video: “I thought some of the decision making by the officials tonight was horrendous and played a big part in the result.
“Kurtley Beale got sin-binned for slapping the ball down. They do the same thing, and it clearly goes forward and they get seven points out of us.
“I am obviously really disappointed with the result. We will end up getting an apology next week, but it won’t help the result. I thought we deserved better.”
But Pivac countered: “I don’t think it (Tompkins incident) is a knock-on personally, nor did the referee, the TMO (television match official), the touch judges or anyone in our coaching box.
“It just goes to show that you can’t switch off and stop. You’ve got to play to the whistle. You tell that to five-year-olds. We were pleased with Nick’s efforts there.
“At the end of the day, we can talk about red cards and yellow cards, but pressure creates cards and we are good enough to create pressure against sides.
“The red cards, I don’t know that we should be explaining that as we don’t give too many away, but opposition have and they need to have a look at that.”
Valetini’s red was the sixth time this year in 12 Tests that an opposition team have had a player sent off against Wales.
Wales recorded a third successive victory over Australia as they ended their Autumn Nations Series campaign in dramatic fashion.
Pivac added: “It was a game I felt we should have run away with in that last 15 minutes and made it comfortable for ourselves.
“I was very pleased with the group we had out there in the last quarter of the game. They managed to salvage a result in the end.
“When the dust settles, we will look back at the squad we have used, the depth that we’ve created. When we go one to 15 on our depth chart, the benefits will lie there, really.
“Internally as a group, we will celebrate for the first time in a number of months.”
