Australia head coach Michael Cheika admits he feels sorry for Scotland duo Ross Ford and Jonny Gray after they were told their World Cup is over.
Scotland are mulling over an appeal but unless they are successful, they will now sit out Sunday's quarter-final clash at Twickenham with team-mate Josh Strauss promising to use the feeling of injustice for motivation against the Wallabies.
Cheika said: "I haven't seen the incident but I feel for them. It's the World Cup, you have worked hard for it and when you get to possibly three finals to play, you miss out.
"The same happened to Michael Hooper last week. His grandparents came over to watch him play last weekend and he was suspended. I know it's a little thing but it's important. You feel for the players."
However, the Wallabies coach does not think their enforced absences will weaken Scotland.
He said: "I haven't watched many games yet but I know the two players from their history with Scotland. They are very influential but I think these types of tournaments are made for people stepping up.
"The guys who will replace those two are ready to roll. We understand there will be 23 players in the Scotland jersey trying to smash us. It doesn't matter the names on the jerseys."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel