Peter Bills: Scotland treated as 'pieces of meat'

Not only did Scotland have to deal with their loss to England, but also with the IRB wanting to turf them out of their hotel. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Cup organisers have responded to Peter Bills. Read it here

Scotland has accused Rugby World Cup organisers of treating players like "pieces of meat" after they were ordered to leave their Auckland hotel only hours after losing to England.

The Scots were told to be out of their hotel in the Sky City complex at 9am yesterday and were expected to be on a flight out of New Zealand en route to London sometime the same day.

Yet the absurd part of it, and this was a fact apparently unknown to the blundering IRB, by early yesterday afternoon the Scots were still firmly on course to qualify for the quarter-finals.

At a time when the IRB had decreed they should check out of their hotel, Georgia's half-time lead over Argentina in Palmerston North gave Scotland hope that they could reach the last eight via the back door.

It would have been mighty interesting if the Scots had got on to the plane home at Auckland airport and Georgia had gone on to beat Argentina by 8 points. After all, they led the Pumas 7-5 at the interval yesterday.

Maybe the captain's message would likely have been "Cabin crew, seats for take off please. Oh, and Scottish rugby players, just get off please. You're in the quarter-finals after all."

As it turned out, Argentina's 25-7 win confirmed Scotland's exit after their defeat by England. But the Scots railed against what they saw as the indecent haste of the IRB to chuck them out, even when the outcome of the second qualifying position in their group was still in doubt.

One Scotland official told me "We felt like pieces of meat, just being used by the IRB. It is appalling the way we have been treated. This World Cup is all about money, nothing else. Namibia were forced to play four games in just 16 days because the TV companies weren't interested in them, and they dictated the schedule to the IRB.

"The board are only interested in making money. We were told one of the quarter-finalists wanted the rooms in our hotel, so we had to get out."

Scotland were incensed at the schedule, not least because they had played a night match which did not kick off until 8.30pm.

I was told: "Last night's match didn't end until almost 10.30. We didn't get back to the hotel until between 12 and 1am. Most guys had medical treatment and were up until 3am or later. And the IRB had said we'd have to check out by 9am because another team was arriving for the quarter-finals."

When countries traditionally as conservative as Scotland voice such strong disapproval of rugby's world governing body, it ought to be time to take notice of the IRB's motives surrounding this World Cup.

Cup organisers have responded to Peter Bills. Read it here