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Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend insisted the standard of officiating at the World Cup needs to improve after being left perplexed by the decision not to issue a red card to Tonga\u2019s Afusipa Taumoepeau for a high tackle that forced his captain Jamie Ritchie off and ruled him out of the next match against Romania.<\/p>\n
The Scots scored seven tries as they defeated the Pacific islanders 45-17 in Nice on Sunday to get the bonus-point win they needed to kick-start their tournament and keep alive their hopes of progressing to the knockout phase.<\/p>\n
However, Townsend was astonished that Taumoepeau did not have his yellow card upgraded to a red for the 33rd-minute flashpoint that left his skipper with a head injury and unable to take part in full contact training until the eve of what is shaping up to be a critical showdown with Ireland in Paris a week on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The head coach\u2019s anger was heightened by the fact there was a similar scenario in Scotland\u2019s first game when South Africa\u2019s Jesse Kriel dodged a red card despite appearing to make head-on-head contact with Jack Dempsey.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s very disappointing that our captain, one of our key players, was hit in the head and had to be removed from the game,\u201d said Townsend. \u201cIt\u2019s twice now that\u2019s happened. Against South Africa, Jack was hit in the head. Nothing happened that day, and today it was only a yellow card.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just don\u2019t understand what the TMO bunker and the three officials who are there to say if it\u2019s a red card are looking at. They are trying to look at ways to not give red cards rather than referee what isn\u2019t a legal tackle and should be a red card, in my opinion.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is our showcase, our opportunity to show what is legal and what is illegal, what we want out of the game. That\u2019s two tackles now, both upright, both hit the head of our players, one had no sanction, not even a penalty, and the second one just had a yellow card. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s good enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Townsend was pleased with the way his team handled the pressure of needing a bonus-point win to keep themselves in with a sniff of qualifying for the quarter-finals from a formidable pool B. The Scots\u2019 seven tries were all scored by different players and four of them came in the first half, reducing any sense of anxiety associated with chasing the bonus.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a bonus \u2013 literally \u2013 that we got those four tries in the first half,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was probably a bit ahead of what we expected. Credit to the players for doing that.<\/p>\n
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\u201cTonga are a very good side with very good individuals. They are very physical. We talked about the fact that the work we did in the first 20 minutes might not necessarily lead to points on the board but we believed we could take away their fitness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ireland\u2019s win over South Africa on Saturday made Scotland\u2019s qualification bid slightly harder than it already was as Townsend\u2019s men will now have to beat the Irish in Paris in the last game and ensure their opponents do not get a losing bonus point.\u00a0\u201cReading a few comments after the game, it looked like Ireland were already in the quarter-finals,\u201d smiled Townsend, mildly miffed by such talk. \u201cEven chatting to a few people today, they were saying it will be Ireland against New Zealand. Maybe that\u2019s already been decided.\u201cWe know we have to win our next two games, and it\u2019s likely now we\u2019ll have to win with either a bonus point or deny Ireland a bonus point. But we\u2019ve got a game next week (against Romania) to focus on and we\u2019ve got to get maximum points from that one first.\u201d<\/p>\n