SCOTLAND were knocked out of the Rugby World Cup last night in the most agonising way possible - losing to Australia by a single point after a controversial penalty awarded by referee Craig Joubert two minutes from time. The Wallabies, who now meet Argentina in the semi-final, won 35-34 at the end of a breathtaking game in which the lead changed hands several times.

The Scots not only played their best rugby of the competition by some way, they also played at a more consistently excellent level than they have done for a very long time. When they meet to analyse the tournament they will be able to reflect with pride on their progress over the past couple of months, but last night head coach Vern Cotter and captain Greig Laidlaw were feeling the pain.

“Right at this moment it’s hard to take,” the scrum-half said. “It’s a pretty unhappy dressing room. We were one kick away from the World Cup semi-finals and we should have been there.”

Joubert awarded the penalty, converted by Bernard Foley, after deciding that Jon Welsh had handled from an offside position. The decision appeared to hinge on how the official interpreted an attempt to gather the ball by Australia’s Nick Phipps after John Hardie had knocked on - and whether the award should be a penalty for deliberate interference or just a scrum to the Wallabies.

The ruling did not come under the categories that can be referred to the Television Match Official, and was one of three by Joubert that appeared to go against Scotland. Sean Maitland was yellow-carded in the first half for a deliberate knock-on, Foley scored early in the second half from another harshly awarded penalty.

Joubert ran off the Twickenham pitch at the end - a highly unusual occurrence in rugby - leaving Laidlaw unable to question him further. “I asked him on several occasions [before the penalty was taken] but he was taking his time to review it himself. He made a sharp exit after the game, that’s for sure. I never got a chance to speak to the referee as he was away that quick.”

Having said that, Laidlaw insisted that Scotland had to be self-critical, and that Australia deserved a lot of praise. “We’re not the type of people to blame other things. If we’d got things right in other moments then we wouldn’t have been in that situation.

“We don’t want to be the type of side which only comes close. I really don’t know what to say. We have a young side and we will only get better.

“Australia attacked us well and they’re a good team, so credit to them. We’re unbreakable at times and that’s the spirit we have. We’re a tight group and you could see that - but if we had been tighter at the end we would have won. It’s going to take days and weeks for us to get over this.”

Cotter was circumspect about the referee, but praised his team. ‘I didn’t see him leave the pitch,” he said. “I think we’ll take time to review that end of the game properly before we pass comment.