Australia coach Joe Schmidt says he was “disappointed” by England’s “gamesmanship” with the match officials in the build-up to the Wallabies’ 25-7 defeat at Allianz Stadium on Saturday.
The Telegraph reported on Thursday, external that England head coach Steve Borthwick had used his usual pre-match meeting with referee Nika Amashukeli to highlight “dozens” of examples of Australia entering rucks from the side during their Rugby Championship campaign earlier this year.
England refused to confirm whether the report was accurate, with Australia captain Harry Wilson described any such complaints as “quite amusing”.
“It’s a bit of gamesmanship,” Schmidt said on Saturday evening, before defending his team’s record.
“We’ve had, up until today, 1,256 attacking rucks. There’s two players at least in each of those. That’s 2,500 ruck entries.
“We had one yellow card. No-one has left the field injured as a result of our clean-outs. We haven’t ever been excessively penalised for side entry.
“So I always find those things disappointing, but not distracting.”
Wilson and prop Taniela Tupou were penalised in quick succession in the opening five minutes for coming into the breakdown illegally. The back-to-back penalties took the Wallabies from five metres from the England line to the same distance from their own.
Australia finished the game having conceded 13 penalties in total, the same number as England.
Schmidt said he did not feel Amashukeli had been influenced by England’s apparent concerns.
“No, I don’t think so,” he said.
“We’d have a fair bit of confidence in the referee… I think the referee is a very experienced referee and he just got on and refereed the game.”
England’s opening tries were created by two of scrum-half Alex Mitchell’s 11 kicks in the game, with wing Tom Roebuck winning the resulting aerial contests and Ben Earl and Henry Pollock capitalising to run in.
“There was some really good work from our players in the air, and I think it is something that everyone has to keep working on because they were the two entry points for England into the game,” added Schmidt.
“We don’t want to make excuses, England were very, very good – the intensity of their aerial chase, the intensity of their breakdown, and their ball carry and the bench that they brought on – six British and Irish Lions – that’s strength in depth.”
Australia, for whom first-choice fly-half James O’Connor, lock Will Skelton and Exeter pair Tom Hooper and Len Ikitau were tied to their clubs and unavailable for a Test taking place outside the international window, play Italy next weekend before fixtures against Ireland and France.