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Warren Gatland has hit out at the decision-making of referee Wayne Barnes following Wales’ 30-26 defeat to Australia at the Millennium Stadium.

The Kiwi coach was unhappy over the English official allowing Joe Tomane’s second-half try when the scoring pass from Israel Folau went a yard forward.

He also argued there was a case for a penalty try in the incident late on where Quade Cooper was sin-binned for tackling Scott Williams without the ball.

Barnes awarded winger Tomane’s controversial 49th minute try, ruling that Folau’s hands had gone backwards in giving the final pass.

The video referee had felt unable to make a conclusive call, so Barnes made the decision himself, much to Wales’ displeasure.

“We thought it was forward,” declared Gatland.

“The referee made the decision himself without the TMO.

“I doubt he would have made that decision himself if it was the All Blacks playing.

“He made the call himself just looking at the big screen.

“It kind of looked like the hands went forward.”

The other key moment in the game came six minutes from time, with Wales having fought back to within four points having trailed 30-16 at one stage.

Wallaby fly-half Cooper was adjudged to have tackled Williams just before the Welsh centre received a pass from Justin Tipuric.

Cooper was yellow carded for the offence, but Gatland argues the punishment could have gone further.

“When Scott was tackled early, is that potentially a penalty try,” he asked.

“If he is not tackled early and catches that and gets that pass away to George North, there’s not much stopping him from there is there?

“You could ask the question whether it should be a penalty try.”

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Gatland continued: “You know how close it is and you just need one of those calls to go your way.

“When it was 10-0 and we conceded three points under our posts where Hibbard gets penalised for going off his feet, that’s tough.

“Australia were smart in the way that they played. It was frustrating. Of the 18 penalties we got, 14 of them were at the breakdown. It stopped some of the momentum we were trying to create.

“You might have expected them to get a warning for the number of breakdown penalties. But the ref didn’t go through that process.”

Reflecting on the contest as a whole, Gatland said: “I thought it was a cracking game of rugby.

“It was a real tough Test match out there.

“We are knocking on the door and at some stage we are going to knock it over.”

Wales captain Sam Warburton, meanwhile, insisted Wales must remain positive despite falling short against the best again.

"It is not a setback," flanker Warburton said, after losing a thrilling encounter to opponents that are in Wales' 2015 World Cup pool.

"Everyone is looking at the World Cup, but two years is a real long time to when that comes around.

"The motivation for the players today was not having one-up on Australia for the World Cup pool. It's a long way away.

"Our focus already turns to the Six Nations. No-one has won the Six Nations three years running, and that will be the target for this group of players moving forward."