THE most creditable defeats are often the bitterest to swallow. When you are second best by a long way, you accept your inferiority and move on. But when you are arguably not second best at all, and when it is as big a match as a Rugby World Cup quarter-final, reconciling yourself to the result is altogether more difficult.

The arguments about the decision which denied Scotland at the death will go on for some time. Referee Craig Joubert appeared wrong to award Australia a penalty for offside when Scotland substitute Jon Welsh touched the ball after his opponent Nick Phipps had made contact, but the fact he made the decision, and Bernard Foley scored from the kick, is what counts most.

Joubert ran off the pitch at the end with the boos ringing in his ears, and within minutes of the game ending a petition was started to ban him from Scotland for life. But, in a 69-point match, that one action, although a dramatic denouement, was just one factor in the outcome.

By half an hour after the game, when he addressed the post-match press conference, captain Greig Laidlaw was able to assess the game in cold blood. He accepted that, while his own team had played magnificently, there were concrete reasons why they had come out on the wrong side of the result. The principal reason was the unstoppable combination of strength and speed, above all at the breakdown, which enabled the Australians to score five tries.

Scotland had resolved to fight fire with fire, and had they not done so they might have been out of the game by half-time. Instead, they put in their best 40 minutes of the tournament, and performed better than most other teams have ever done against the much-vaunted Australian defence.

The match began with both Ross Ford and Jonny Gray in the starting line-up, their three-match suspensions for foul play having been overturned by an RWC appeals committee yesterday. Fraser Brown and Tim Swinson, their respective replacements in the team announced on Friday, went down to the bench, while Kevin Bryce and Alasdair Strokosch dropped out of the squad.

Australia made their intentions clear from the start, running at Scotland through phase after phase and recycling with frightening rapidity. They opened the scoring within ten minutes through an Adam Ashley-Cooper try after Tevita Kuridrani had done the damage by bouncing off a couple of would-be tacklers before slipping the ball to the right winger.

Laidlaw opened Scotland’s account with the first of five penalties, and then Peter Horne exploited some slackness in the Wallabies’ defence by darting through a ruck to touch down. The captain’s conversion made it 10-5 to the Scots, then when the Australians collapsed a scrum on their own ten-metre line two minutes later, Laidlaw fired home another penalty.

The Australians hit back after half an hour, going close to the Scotland line and sucking bodies in to create an overlap on the left for Drew Mitchell to score their second try. The conversion was missed, then Laidlaw knocked over his third penalty.

Two minutes from half-time the Wallabies kicked a penalty in the Scots 22 to touch. Their lineout drive was held up momentarily, but Michael Hooper took it on and plunged over the line. Foley’s failed conversion attempt was the last kick of the half, meaning the score at the break was 16-15 to Scotland.

Two minutes into the second half, Sean Maitland was debatably yellow-carded for a deliberate knock-on on the edge of his own 22, and Australia needed just a minute to take advantage - and regain the lead. They kicked the penalty to touch, drove infield towards the Scottish posts, and then went left, where Mitchell was ideally placed to score his second try of the afternoon. Foley’s conversion was good this time, to put his team 22-16 ahead.

Laidlaw narrowed the gap with his fourth penalty minutes later. Australia went straight back on to the attack and thought they had their fifth try when Ashley-Cooper touched down in the right corner, but the score was chalked off for an earlier knock-on.

Maitland returned just before Foley scored with a penalty from the ten-metre line to restore his team’s six-point lead. Scotland needed to respond with the next score - and they got it just before the hour when Russell charged down a Foley kick and popped up a pass from the deck for Seymour to go over in the left corner. Laidlaw’s conversion was wide of the mark, so Australia were still in the lead at 25-24.

With quarter of an hour to go, Kuridrani stretched it back out to six points with his team’s fifth try after Scotland had lost a lineout. Foley’s conversion made it eight. A fifth Laidlaw penalty with 11 minutes to go made it 32-27 and meant the game was a single-score contest again.

With seven minutes left, after a heavy drizzle had begun to descend, Scotland sensationally regained the lead. Bennett intercepted a James Slipper pass to dash in and score under the posts, and Laidlaw added the conversion.

Australia needed to draw on every ounce of their defiant self-belief at that point, and they did, fighting their way upfield until Joubert made that fateful decision. Foley stroked the ball between the sticks, his team had scraped through, and Scotland’s dream of reaching a first semi-final in nearly a quarter of a century had died.

AUSTRALIA: Tries: Ashley-Cooper, Mitchell 2, Hooper, Kuridrani. Cons: Foley 2. Pens: Foley 2.

SCOTLAND: Tries: Horne, Seymour, Bennett. Cons: Laidlaw 2. Pens: Laidlaw 5.

Australia: K Beale; A Ashley-Cooper, T Kuridrani, M Giteau, D Mitchell; B Foley, W Genia (N Phipps 71); S Sio (J Slipper 51), S Moore (T Polota-Nau 62), S Kepu (G Holmes 54), K Douglas, R Simmons (D Mumm 66), S Fardy, M Hooper, B McCalman. Unused substitutes: S McMahon, M Toomua, Q Cooper.

Scotland: S Hogg; S Maitland, M Bennett, P Horne (R Vernon 71), T Seymour (S Lamont 63); F Russell, G Laidlaw; A Dickinson (G Reid 48), R Ford (F Brown 54), W Nel (J Welsh 76), R Gray, J Gray (T Swinson 67), B Cowan (J Strauss 67), J Hardie, D Denton. Unused substitute: H Pyrgos.

Referee: C Joubert (South Africa). Attendance: 77,110.