Robinson was frustrated by referee Dave Pearson’s decision to deny Scotland a second try early in the game and to not sin-bin infringing Romanians in the second half, but was quick to accept that his side’s fall out of the game either side of half-time was largely of their own making.
“I saw this very much like Andy Murray playing tennis matches when he plays the five sets,” he said. “You get put under that pressure in the second or third set and it’s how you come through it, and then the focus is on the next game.
“There are always challenges put up in front of us and it’s about how we deal with those challenges. In the cold light of day we’ve got five points and we’re looking forward to playing Georgia.
“But what I said to the players is that it’s a real lesson for us about not ever taking anything for granted. One thing we’ve been working and striving for is consistency of performance. Yet in that period (where Romania turned a 15-3 deficit into a 24-21 lead] we under-performed and part of that was taking things for granted. It was disappointing that we had to go through that but it’s part of our journey.
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“There can be some outstanding moments but there can be some real scary stuff. We played some outstanding rugby in Paris (in the 2011 Six Nations] and yet conceded five tries that were like schoolboy errors, and that’s what we have to be able to understand and deal with.”
Robinson identified a lack of urgency as a key fault in the Scottish performance after the initial quarter, and a desire to go around the Romanians rather than go directly at them in attack as contributing to game’s momentum shift.
On the controversial refereeing moments, the Scotland coach said: “The referee didn’t sin-bin anybody and in a bigger game you are liable to have sin-bins in the situations we had.
“Also, we’ve looked at the play just before we went into our lull and it was a great ball to Joe Ansbro (a try move pulled back for crossing]. It’s a ball that everybody uses. He received the pass, but the defenders just got caught. It’s not crossing.
“It was exactly the same (as Sonny Bill Williams’ disallowed try for New Zealand on Friday night]. If you can receive the pass it’s not crossing. You can pass behind people; you do it all the time. It’s not a penalty.<!—
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