Scotland’s Greig Laidlaw had some words to get off his chest after Saturday’s loss to Ireland in Murrayfield and they have gone largely unnoticed.
Following his sides 22-13 loss, Laidlaw claimed that referee Romain Poite gave a couple of soft decisions in favour of the Irish directly after the match.
“Romain Poite picked us up in the middle of the field, Sean O’Brien reefed the ball out and he’s given a knock-on and it’s right on front of him,” he said in an interview to BBC directly following the game.
“He doesn’t seem to like us Romain. He refereed us against South Africa as well, and we don’t seem to see eye to eye, so,” he added.
Laidlaw’s comments could have been forgiven
due to the heat of the moment in losing, as he did also say we’re not going to
blame him, we’ve got to look at ourselves, and again credit to Ireland.”
However, Laidlaw continued his attack on
the French referee during the post-game press conference to add fuel to the fire.
Again, he pointed to the Sean O’Brien incident.
“There’s one moment in particular. We launched off a lineout in the second half and Sean O’Brien kind of reefed the ball and Romain was right there and he gave a knock on against us when it was clearly not a knock on,” said Laidlaw to the press.
“It was play on so you can understand why, with the way the game was going, we get frustrated. We talk about Test matches turning on small points and again that just allowed us to release the pressure valve [on Ireland],” he continued.
He also spoke of his team’s “disappointment”
in the decision but was not 100% backed up by head coach Gregor Townsend.
“I think nines are always frustrated when they can’t get the ball away cleanly and quickly. There was an incident on the screen with two Irish hands on the ball, and Greig ripped them away from it, and he was probably frustrated having seen that picture a number of times,” Townsend said in the press conference.
“You can understand his frustration. But it’s a tough game to referee, Romain is an outstanding referee, and today was a proper test match with two teams in the way they defend and compete hard at the breakdown and is difficult for referees to manage,” he added, refusing to blame the referee.
The question now arises should Laidlaw’s
comments see him face some form of punishment for questioning officials?
Only time will tell what happens but for now it would seem Laidlaw would not be best pleased if Poite referees any of Scotland’s future games especially when his side face Ireland once more in the World Cup later this year.
Another incident that went unpunished was the collision that forced Stuart Hogg out of the game early doors after what could be described as a late hit. We take a look at the kick and the reaction here.
