domingo, 25 de septiembre de 2011

Scotland laments “30 seconds of madness” after World Cup loss to Argentina - Toronto Star

WELLINGTON—Scotland coach Andy Robinson blamed "30 seconds of madness" which cost his team a win over Argentina at the Rugby World Cup on Sunday.

The 13-12 result means three teams, including 2003 champions England, are competing for two quarterfinal places from Pool B.

Robinson said the Scottish players were "grieving" in the dressing room after conceding a try seven minutes from fulltime to let a 12-6 lead slip and place in jeopardy their hopes of reaching the quarterfinals for the seventh straight World Cup.

England has 14 points from three wins and Scotland and Argentina 10 points each.

Argentina would be expected to comfortably beat Georgia in its final match, putting pressure on Scotland to beat its neighbour and historical rival England.

While Ireland routed Russia 62-12 and Samoa beat Fiji 27-7 to each take a step closer to the knockout rounds, Scotland's proud record of reaching the quarterfinals at every tournament since its inception in 1987 is in jeopardy.

"It's a six-day turnaround and we know it's going to be tough (but) we'll be ready to go in six days' time in Auckland," Robinson said of the England match. "Winning any game is tough and we've just got to put ourselves in the position to win the game.

"So practically we'll look at where England are and where we are. The Scotland side will be very fired up."

Robinson said he felt Scotland had Sunday's game in safekeeping before a lapse in concentration allowed Argentina to score the winning try, the only one of the match.

"We got to 12-6 and I felt that we were in control of the game," he said. "I thought the reason we lost this game was because of a moment of just dropping our concentration.

"You should know that the team is grieving in the dressing room because we know we got into a very good position and we lost. I thought tactically we got it right today apart from 30 seconds of madness."

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