Scotland were narrowly beaten by Ireland at Murrayfield

Andy Robinson hit out at Irish foul play after Scotland's 21-18 defeat at Murrayfield and vowed to complain about the way the match was refereed.

The Scots head coach was particularly disappointed at the way scrums were officiated, with Allan Jacobsen being sent to the sin bin in the second half.

"It is something I need to deal with with the powers at be, which I will do," Robinson told BBC Scotland.

"But I'm delighted with the way the team came back from that."

Robinson, whose side are now without a win from three matches and travelling to Grand Slam-chasing England on 13 March, also suggested that referee Nigel Owens was too lenient on Ireland's consistent foul play.

"The frustrating thing about the sport is that teams can slow down your rhythm and stop you playing and they do that by giving penalties away," he said.

"Ireland did that today. They gave penalties away and that's why we got the points on the board.

The penalty count I am told is 13-4 and every time we got close to the line they offended Scotland head coach Andy Robinson

"But it becomes frustrating for us as it stops you doing what we did in the second half.

"What is disappointing is that there were no sin-bins for an Irish player.

"The penalty count I am told is 13-4 and every time we got close to the line they offended.

"Secondly, I was not happy with the scrum offence. We had two scrums going forward just after half time and to sin bin our prop was very frustrating.

"We couldn't get quick ball. Nigel rightly penalised them, but you need to look at the difference between Allan Jacobsen going off and seven points conceded by Scotland and what happened with them being able to keep 15 players on the pitch."

Tries from Jamie Heaslip, Eoin Reddan and Ronan O'Gara, who added three conversions, gave Ireland a comfortable 21-9 lead.

Scotland responded through four Chris Paterson penalties, a Dan Parks drop goal and penalty but could not breach the Ireland defence for the winning try in a strong final quarter.

"The game is about inches and you have to make sure the inches are stacked up on your side," said Robinson.

"Today, the first two tries we conceded were from us allowing Ireland to get the territory.

"And the third try was when we were short of numbers and we kicked a ball away and put ourselves under huge pressure.

"But you saw that the commitment was there from the players, the attitude was there and the skills are improving.

"There is a lot for us to work on and build on."

Ruaridh Jackson had been given a first start for Scotland at fly half, with the man he replaced, Dan Parks coming on to score a penalty and a drop goal.

"I was delighted with the way Ruiridh played and really pleased with Dan coming out with the response he had in the last 15 minutes," added Robinson.

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