October 20, 2015 1:00pm by David Farrar

Scotland were robbed

Rugby World Cup bosses have officially confirmed South African referee Craig Joubert blundered in awarding Australia a penalty that handed them victory over Scotland. …

World Rugby said in a statement said they had conducted a full review of match officials’ performance and clarified Joubert’s decision, finding he had made a mistake and should have awarded a scrum to Australia for an initial knock-on.

They said Joubert had incorrectly applied law 11.7 penalising Scotland’s Jon Welsh, who had played the ball following a knock-on by a team-mate, resulting in an offside.

“On review of all available angles, it is clear that after the knock-on, the ball was touched by Australia’s Nick Phipps and law 11.3(c) states that a player can be put on-side by an opponent who intentionally plays the ball.

“In this case, law 11.3(c) should have been applied, putting Welsh onside. The appropriate decision, therefore, should have been a scrum to Australia for the original knock-on.

Scotland have every reason to feel sore. They were robbed by a bad call.