Wallabies coach Dave Rennie is usually a man of few words when it comes to moments of controversy, but he couldn't help himself after a dramatic 29-28 defeat to Wales on Sunday morning (AEDT).
The loss was Australia's third straight and the result of some questionable calls against Rennie's side.
The Wallabies had to play over an hour with only 14 men after Rob Valetini was shown a red card following a nasty collision with Adam Beard.
Rennie had no issue with that call but did take exception to two seperate knockdown rulings with both going against Australia.
“I thought some of the decision making tonight was horrendous, and played a big part in the result,” Rennie said.
“We’ll get an apology next week but it won’t mean anything.
“I don’t have an issue with the red card because that’s the way it’s been refereeing these days. Rob’s responsibility is to drop his height in the tackle and he didn’t and had a head clash, so you’ve got to take that on the chin.
“I wasn’t happy with Kurtley’s yellow card, he’s making an effort to wrap two arms, it clips his hand on the way through and they find a yellow card for that. Tompkins slaps the ball down, somehow they say that didn’t go forward when he’s facing forward and they get seven points out of it instead of us getting a yellow card and a penalty out of it.
“There were lots of decisions today, I’m not going to go into them all, but I felt it had a massive bearing on the game.
“Rugby’s probably one of the most absurd sports there is” 🤔#StanSportAU #AutumnNationsSeries #WALvAUS pic.twitter.com/2eHwPxbC8G
— Stan Sport (@StanSportAU) November 20, 2021
“I make a real point not to criticise referees.It doesn’t change the result and the boys emptied out the tank and we deserved a better result than that, so I think it was important I spoke my mind.
"I’ve been a professional coach for over 20 years, I’ve never gone into the media and had a crack at a referee or a referee coach but I felt I had to tonight.
“It’s not emotional, it’s not overreacting but I felt it was important to state our feelings.”
The Wallabies arrived in the Europe earlier this month having won five straight games but have now tasted defeat against Scotland, England and Wales as 2021 ends on a frustrating note.