'There must have been a lot of Aussies or a lot of drunk Scotsmen' - Dave Rennie admits he thought Blair Kinghorn had landed kick

Relieved Australia head Dave Rennie thought Blair Kinghorn’s last-minute kick had gone over, such was the reaction from the crowd, and admitted that his team were “happy to hang on” in their 16-15 triumph over Scotland at BT Murrayfield.

A large number of Scotland fans cheered Kinghorn’s kick from 40 yards out that would have won the game for Scotland, only for the ball to sail agonisingly past the posts. It meant that the Wallabies’ fightback from 15-6 down was not in vain as a try from James Slipper and the steady kicking of Bernard Foley secured the win for the tourists.

"A bit of relief, especially with Blair Kinghorn lining up,” Rennie said when asked for his overriding emotions after the match. “There was a helluva lot of noise in the crowd. I thought it was over. There must have been a lot of Aussies or a lot of drunk Scotsmen in the stands. We're happy to hang on. I'm proud of the effort, because at 15-6, we gave up a soft one straight after half time, but we fought our way in and got our nose in front.”

Rennie had no complaints over the colour of the card for Scotland lock Glen Young, who was sinbinned for contact to Tate McDermott’s head when trying to clear out a ruck. "Yellow card,” he said. “They had a decent look at it. Bicep to the head. I'm happy with it.” He did admit to a slight bit of fortune to the overturning of Hunter Paisami’s yellow card, though. "Get out of jail free card!” he smiled. “The way they've described it was intentional knock down, penalty and no cover, but then the TMO picked up that we actually had people in behind that, so no obvious line-break opportunity, so they reversed it.

EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND - OCTOBER 29: Dave Rennie, Head Coach of Australia, looks on prior to kick off of the Autumn International match between Scotland and Australia at Murrayfield Stadium on October 29, 2022 in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo by Mark Runnacles/Getty Images)

Captain Slipper echoed Rennie’s sentiments and was just glad to win a close match given a recent painful loss at home to New Zealand in the Rugby Championship. “We've had a season when we've lost a fair few games in the last ten minutes,” said the prop. “It was nice to actually come out of the right side of the scoreboard tonight. The character was there to hang in and create opportunities.”