For the first time there will be no European teams in the semi-finals of the Rugby World Cup after a controversial late penalty decision robbed Scotland of a potential spot in the last four. The Scots were leading Australia 34-32 entering the closing moments when the Wallabies were awarded a disputed penalty which allowed Bernard Foley to kick his side to a last-gasp victory.

Replays cast doubt on the penalty decision, the ball having been touched by the Australian replacement scrum-half, Nick Phipps, before the referee, Craig Joubert, adjudged the Scottish prop Jon Welsh caught it while standing in an offside position. The former Scotland captain Gavin Hastings argued on BBC Radio 5 Live that Joubert should have consulted the television match official, even though the TMO can only intervene to check whether tries have been legitimately scored or if there has been an act of foul play.

Hastings was also upset that Joubert immediately ran from the field at the end of the game rather than explaining his decision to the players.

“If I see referee Craig Joubert again I am going to tell him how disgusted I am,” said Hastings. “It was disgraceful that he ran straight off the pitch at the end like that. The referee is not expected to make the right decision all the time. That’s what the TMO system is in place for. This is the quarter-final of a Rugby World Cup. This is the highest end of our sport and they have to get these decisions right.”

“I just get frustrated when games are decided by such decisions,” added the former England scrum-half Matt Dawson. “I wish [the Scotland coach] Vern Cotter could come out and say I’m angry. I also want some accountability. I want a quote from Craig Joubert or from World Rugby to explain themselves.”

Scotland’s captain, Greig Laidlaw, could not hide his frustration at the way his team were denied, having battled their way back into a contest that appeared to be slipping away in the second half. “They go to the TMO for everything else these days, so why not go to the TMO for that?” asked Laidlaw. He said he had urged Joubert to go upstairs without success.

“I asked him on several occasions. I don’t know what the protocol is but you could see from the way he had taken his time that he had a good look at the big screen and wasn’t sure. From where I was it looked to me it hit Phipps. But we’re not the type of people to blame little things. If we had tightened up in other areas we might not have been in that situation.”

According to World Rugby law 11.3c, the penalty call also hinged on whether Phipps deliberately touched the ball. If the contact was accidental Welsh could technically still have been ruled offside and a penalty awarded.

Cotter said he intended to review the decision but his Australian counterpart, Michael Cheika, reckoned it was simply another example of rugby’s slim margins. “As long as rugby’s been around that’s what it is,” said Cheika, whose side will now meet Argentina on Sunday.

“That’s the way it works. That’s life. You’ve got to live with the ones you get and the ones you don’t. You’ve still got to kick it when you get it. If you kick a goal to win a game with a minute to go it’s usually an escape but, given we scored five tries, we deserve to be up there.”

The outcome means that all four semi-final berths will be filled by southern hemisphere sides for the first time in the tournament’s history, with New Zealand and South Africa completing the quartet.

Cheika suggested this was partly a consequence of England and Wales being drawn in the same pool as the Wallabies – “It was always a possibility that one of the main northern hemisphere sides wouldn’t come out of it” – but that had no bearing on Ireland’s 43-20 defeat by the Pumas in Cardiff.

The Ireland coach, Joe Schmidt, believes a lack of experience cost his side in the absence of their two leaders, Paul O’Connell and Johnny Sexton.

“It was a performance that the players will learn from,” said Schmidt. “There was a lot of players who have never been in a match of that intensity and hopefully that experience will offer something in the future. Certainly the dressing room is very disappointed.

“You can’t afford to give a team a head start like we did. At 23-20 we even had a position in their 22 and worked an overlap that we didn’t go to. It’s probably a little bit of a lack of experience and that’s frustrating. They [Argentina] made the most of those two chances early in the game and building that scoreboard pressure allowed them a real lift in confidence.”

“I’m very happy. We have met our second objective which is to play seven matches in the World Cup,” said the Argentina coach, Daniel Hourcade. “I obviously feel very proud at the way we played and won. We did everything to avoid a try at the end and that’s the heart that this team has.”