Williams claims refs are not giving Scotland ‘fair crack of the whip’

SCOTLAND coach Matt Williams has called on referees to get fair with his side, blaming the loss to Italy on crucial wrong decisions by Welsh whistler Nigel Whitehouse and hinting his side are handled differently because of their lowly status.

Williams claimed hooker Fabio Ongaro's try for the Italians in the 20-14 defeat in the Stadio Flaminio would have been ruled out if Whitehouse had called for the video referee and he also maintained that scrum-half Mike Blair should have been awarded a score in the second-half.

The Australian stopped short of forming a conspiracy theory but admitted he found the unexplained removal of Argentinian official Pablo Deluca from last month's match against England and the subsequent retirement of his replacement for the Calcutta Cup clash, David McHugh, "mysterious".

He said: "When you are at the bottom of the pile, with no international referees on the panel as a country, you tend not to have any political clout.

"We only have to look at Pablo Deluca. Where did he disappear to? Where did he go? Where did that appointment come from? Straight after that English game the referee (David McHugh) retires. The questions that it asks are quite staggering."

Williams feels his team have not received a "fair crack of the whip" in their treatment by referees so far in the RBS 6 Nations Championship.

And, with the tournament's wooden spoon seemingly inevitable this year the table-topping French are due at Murrayfield on Sunday followed by the trip to Dublin to face the Irish, Williams has called for greater consistency from the referees, starting with countryman Scott Young this weekend.

"We then go to the game last week," he continued.

"Every other fixture where there was a question-mark over the try, the fourth referee was asked to adjudicate. He wasn't even asked to adjudicate on a blatant knock-on. Why was that the case?

"I am saying we want the referees to referee us the exact same way they referee other Six Nations games. In the last two fixtures the video referee has not been used and it has cost us points. What we are asking for is that on tries and decisions that are doubtful the video referee be used.

"In the England game (against Ireland) did the video referee get used? Yes, and a try was disallowed. Why wasn't the video referee used in our game? They have the processes, they have the cards in their hand, play the cards.

"We didn't get the same parameters applied, it's a fact, because we didn't get the video referee. This week, I want the same parameters applied to the Scottish international against France as was applied to the English international against Ireland.

"Right now we are in a big change process but the change process should not affect refereeing. All we are asking for is the exact same process that is done in other Six Nations fixtures to be done at ours nothing more."