SYDNEY -- Argentina coach Felipe Contepomi hasn't held back in his post-match comments, blasting the referee team who oversaw the side's tight two-point victory over the Wallabies in Sydney.
Despite the crucial win that sees the time leapfrog the Wallabies on the world rankings, Contepomi was left "frustrated" by what he deemed inconsistencies in referee decisions with both coaches left scratching their heads following several bizarre calls on the pitch.
While the Wallabies were practically whistled out of the game -- many from their own poor discipline -- the Pumas seemed to earn the favour of England referee Christophe Ridley throughout the match but were still on the end of several highly contentious decisions.
None more so than the non-call of a blatant forward pass to Filipo Daugunu for his second try. Despite immediately checking for any issues with the TMO [Television Match Officials], the try was still awarded, and the Wallabies were able to close the gap to get within two points with a minute left on the clock. What made it even more egregious was the fact even the Wallabies players knew the ball had flown forward, with several placing their heads in their hands as they watched the replay.
It came just minutes after Australia was called back from an attacking raid metres from the Pumas' line over what the touch judged deemed a forward pass from Fraser McReight to Max Jorgensen despite the replays clearly showing the pass was flat.
"I've got mixed feelings and bit of frustration," Contepomi said post-match. "Obviously, we are delighted for the win, but we focus more on process than on just the results... things that we don't control with the team of four [referee team] and so on that we are again in the same situation as last week and it's frustrating, you know, it's frustrating. I think we don't deserve that.
"I've got mixed emotions. Very frustrated, very frustrated because it's not working. Simple as that, it's not working the system, whatever they are doing to get it better, there's no consistency and it's not working you know.
"For me, it's not about winning, it's about how you win, how you do things. We are playing against a great team. Australia came back, they are a very good team that they play wonderful rugby, and you know we need to acknowledge that, and we don't control that either. But the things that we control, our errors, we make, we take accountability. We made a lot of errors and in crucial moments and we weren't slick enough when we were in the last five metres we didn't score when we had to and those things we are going to learn, but my God, there are other things that we don't control that I'm fed up."
The missed forward pass was a clear sore point for the coach, but so too was the decision to penalise Argentina for a high hit on the Wallabies, despite a similar action in the first half failing to earn the same punishment.
"For the forward pass, I'm not frustrated. I'm frustrated that no one saw that forward pass. The TMO didn't see it. I'm frustrated that the same penalty he gave in the last two minutes to go for a lineout, it was exactly the same as not even a head knock [earlier], how? There's no consistency.
"I'm frustrated on consistency. Same action in the first half, it's play on or similar, not saying because there's never same action, but similar action's play on, here penalty, so it's hard. It's hard."
Contepomi's frustrations had clearly boiled over after his side had a certain victory snatched away after the siren in Townsville last weekend.
Under immense pressure on their own line the Pumas conceded multiple off-side penalties and several warnings before the Wallabies were able to pounce on the errors and score the match-winning try six minutes after the fulltime siren.
"Probably because there's no consistency. I don't know. I don't know. It's unbelievable," he said. "That last game there were five penalties for offside for Argentina, with four advantage penalties, none for Australia. OK, this game, first two minutes already a penalty for Australia.
"That's not the solution, it's to be consistent for all the games.
"I'm pretty sure that Joe would be frustrated also. But it's kind of tough. There's something that's not well done, because if two coaches are frustrated... I don't know."
Schmidt wouldn't be drawn into the issue, but it was clear the referees decisions had left the Wallabies coach frustrated. "I'm frustrated with what we didn't get right," he said after the match. "I think as soon as you start getting distracted by things you don't control, I think there's a risk.
"We'll go through the channels and these decisions that right toward the end there when we almost get ourselves back into the game with a little bit more time to spare, we're frustrated, but it's our fault we're in that position in the game to a large degree.
"If we could stay focused on what we need to do and leave the match officials to focus on what they need to do, I think it's probably the best course of action."
Argentina captain Julian Montoya reiterated his coach's words after he too was left baffled by several calls against his side, before he called for his side to earn more respect.
"I agree with Felipe everything he said," Montoya said. "We are very aligned in the way that we feel the [referee]. Of course, I'm very happy to have the win. We worked too hard to win. This is professional rugby and this is like Test match intensity and we love winning, and we love winning more. We hate losing more than we would love winning.
"We play for our country, we love, we want to win, but we judge ourselves if we learn from one game to another, another thing that we learn as much because we in the things that we can control, we did that pretty similar mistakes than last week. But then in terms of what Felipe is saying, yeah, I agree with him of course, of course. We just want to be respected, you know."
Asked if he knew the solution for the consistency issues, Contepomi said rugby's laws left it too open for differing interpretations but called for TMOs to improve their standards.
"Well, I'm coaching, I can tell you what we can do in coaching. But it's not for me to look and find those solutions. I can give you or tell you what I think, but it's not my responsibility now," Contepomi said. "And I think rugby is too grey in terms of law interpretations and this and that, it has to be more black and white, so that there's no more, you know...
"I respect the human error, but when you have too many images and you have TMO coming when a guy from the top makes the error with all the cameras and everything and it's like if you're going to use the TMO and come in and out and he needs to make. Unfortunately he can still make errors, but he needs consistency. That's the word."