Argentina coach Felipe Contepomi has hit out at New Zealand referee Paul Williams and his officiating team following the Pumas’ defeat to the Wallabies in Townsville.

The Wallabies snatched a dramatic 28-24 victory with an 85th-minute try, having turned down three chances to kick a late penalty to draw the match.

The hosts overturned a 21-7 half-time deficit and benefitted from a flurry of second-half penalties.

Speaking at a press conference when naming his team for the rematch in Sydney this Saturday, Contepomi said his players were “frustrated” by the officiating and tired of getting apologies after the fact.

“I’d like to clarify that we’ve made a lot of mistakes and we’re always very self-critical. We’re constantly looking for improvement and trying to improve what we can control, which is our performance,” Contepomi said.

“Then there are variables beyond your control, including your opponent. Australia played a great game and has very good players and an excellent head coach. You can’t take any credit away from them because they went out to win the game and won it.”

However, Contepomi said he felt the refereeing had too much influence on the outcome.

“The referee, I would say the team of four, with the touch judges and the TMO, which we also did not control … It left us a little frustrated without a doubt,” he said.

“It hurts. It’s a frustration from our side that we are a little tired of receiving responses in the week after the match: ‘yes, we were confused, our mistake, apologies’. Those things have to be better.”

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Contepomi said Argentina had been on the wrong side of late calls too often in recent seasons.

“There’s a huge amount of work to be done here, especially by the players who work hard. In that sense, I think consistency and a little more clarity in certain decisions are needed, because if we look at the matches, in the last two years there were five matches that were decided in the last two or three minutes, and in all five there were controversial decisions in the last few minutes. And unfortunately, those decisions went against us.

“So it leaves a bit of bitterness, actually frustration. Now, we can’t control that, so we have to hope that they continue doing the right work and seek that continuous improvement. Hopefully that day will come.”

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He highlighted the late rash of offside calls against his team.

“There were five offsides called against us, four offside advantages. Surprisingly, Australia didn’t commit any offside penalties and there were no offside advantages from their side either.

“In that back-and-forth, when they come and tell you: ‘Yes, we were bad.’ There were decisions; beyond those offside things, I can go on to two or three decisions that don’t exactly define matches, but they change the course. There’s frustration. Luckily, there’s dialogue, but yes, it hurts.”

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