"I invited him to come to the presser but he didn’t want to," Michael Cheika said following Australia's defeat to Ireland in the final test of their summer series in Sydney.
It was referee Pascal Gauzere to whom Cheika was referring. The Australia head coach was unhappy with some of the decisions made by the French official and - as he is allowed do - asked that he attend the post-match press conference to explain the reasons for the calls.
Unsurprisingly, Gauzere turned down the invitation.
"You guys have seen what happened out there, you saw the decisions, the only people who can answer the questions are the referees, not me. I’ll say something and you’ll say it’s a biased view," Cheika is quoted as saying by the Sydney Morning Herald.
I don’t want to be the guy who looks like: ‘oh, he’s a moaner’. That’s how it always ends up. They can answer it themselves, to be honest.
Across the series we’ve been talking about really trying to build a good rapport and have clarity around decisions and have a no excuses mentality, which I really want to maintain.
In particular, Cheika was annoyed by the late penalty which allowed Johnny Sexton take the game from there being the minumum between the two sides to a four-point gap.
Replacement hooker Tolu Latu was pinged the breakdown, Cheika felt that should not have happened.
"I think you guys saw what happened. Tolu is first there with no ruck formed and he gets awarded a penalty against him. Like I said, that’s the fact.
"The only people who can answer the questions are the referees or the referees' boss, if we’re fair dinkum. I’ll keep it to myself."
Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
