Wallabies coach Cheika cries foul over spidercam call
ByReuters
Published 25/06/2016 at 15:09 GMT
Australia coach Michael Cheika's dissatisfaction over the officiating in his team's 3-0 series defeat by England hit overdrive on Saturday after the referee failed to intervene when the ball hit an overhead camera wire.
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The incident came two minutes after the restart in the second half when Australia were receiving a kick inside their own half and England regained possession as a result.
Referee Nigel Owens, as was his discretion, let play continue as he thought the disruption of the flight of the ball had impacted on both sides equally, an assessment that Cheika wholeheartedly disagreed with.
"It can't hit the camera wire and play on," he told reporters.
"It's 50-50 for each team? No way, if you are waiting to catch a ball and hits the wire you are all of a sudden out of position. I don't see how that can be play on."
The next passage of play could not have helped Cheika's mood.
Australia captain Stephen Moore overthrew the ball at a defensive lineout, England flanker Chris Robshaw was held up over the line and Billy Vunipola scored from the back of the ensuing five-metre scrum.
"Moorey was throwing a line-out ball and the linesman was pushing him in the back," added Cheika.
"He's telling the referee he wants England to move out of the gap and he's pushing Stephen in the back when he's throwing the ball in, and he misses the throw.
"That intervention's not required, then the ball hits the spidercam and intervention is required."
Cheika said he had made complaints through official channels about the refereeing during the series after Australia suffered a heavy penalty count in the first two tests.
"I don't think all the penalties have just been the result of our discipline and it's no secret that I haven't been happy with the refereeing," he said.
"It's cost us a lot of points, hasn't it. How many? 66 in kicked goals? That's a lot. But I'm not going to say it's cost you games or anything like that."
Cheika said the Wallabies, who scored more tries than England in two of the tests, would look at discipline as part of their post-series debrief but the main focus would be elsewhere.
"The major part will be to assess what we need to do to eliminate the small errors, the accuracy, the small errors that are shutting down the game we are trying to play," he said.
"Because we're playing a lot of attacking rugby and we don't want to stop doing that. There's always a risk that if you are playing like that, if your team's not accurate you get hit on the counter," Cheika added.
"In this series we haven't been accurate enough with the small details."
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