Michael Cheika backs Dave Rennie on his criticism of match officials

Australia head coach Dave Rennie has found support from Michael Cheika following his criticism on the match officials after losing the recently concluded fixture against Wales.

Rennie specifically targetted South African TMO Marius Jonker and his decisions in both the games against Scotland and Wales which the Wallabies went on to lose narrowly.

According to Rennie, a number of decisions went against his side as Kurtley Beale was sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on while Wales centre Nick Tompkins was allowed to score a try despite appearing close to a similar incident.

The ruling came two weeks later when the South African official ruled the decision to sin-bin Allan Alaalatoa - a decision that World Rugby later described incorrect.

“I’ve been right there, right where he’s standing, feeling just like that, and I want to give him my support right now,” Cheika said.

“Coach Rennie is pointing out that incident [with Tomkins] but I think it’s the accumulation [of rulings], also the involvement of the TMO in many decisions, and he’ll be feeling frustrated because, just like me, he felt his side had played really well and gritty.

“Like he [Rennie] said, they deserved more on the night. He’ll be feeling that now, so let’s give him a bit of room to vent and tomorrow he’ll be sweet.”