Robinson Proud of Scotland Effort

Andy Robinson praised his team for their efforts despite a 16-12 defeat by England leaving Scotland on the brink of a World Cup exit.

The Scots' hopes now depend on outsiders Georgia, coached by Scotsman Richie Dixon, defeating Argentina and denying the Pumas a bonus point.

"I've got to give every credit to the side," said head coach Robinson. "They've given everything.

"We're going to be supporting Georgia. We hope they can do a job for us."

Scotland, who were beaten by a late score from Argentina last weekend, had been leading for the whole Pool B match in Auckland until Chris Ashton's try with three minutes remaining.

"We're hugely disappointed to lose the game, as we were last week," said Robinson.

The difference was Argentina and England maybe had one or two chances and were very clinical when they had those chances. We created opportunities to score tries, but we didn't take themAlastair KellockScotland captain

"I think the big thing is that sport is won and lost by inches.

"In both cases, where it's come to winning games, we've lost out.

"But you can't fault England. They've held it together under pressure and seen themselves through."

Robinson spoke with pride about his team, despite the fact that they are likely to become the first Scottish side not to reach at least the World Cup quarter-finals.

"There's a great spirit among the boys," said the former England coach and player.

"The way they have carried themselves throughout the World Cup, the friends they've made - I think they've been an outstanding group of people and I've been delighted to be their head coach."

Scotland centre Nick De Luca failed to pick up five yards from the England line with his side leading 9-3 as their try-scoring problems came back to haunt them.

Captain Alastair Kellock bemoaned another day when the Scots failed to cash in on their opportunities.

"The difference was Argentina and England maybe had one or two chances and were very clinical when they had those chances," said the lock.

"We created opportunities to score tries, but we didn't take them. We should have kept building the pressure.

"We were making them do things they didn't want to do. But, when they got the chance, they took it very well.

"There's never a doubt about our commitment. To a man, we left ourselves out there."

Murray Misses Sunday Match

Devout Christian Euan Murray has questioned the need for Rugby World Cup matches to be played on Sundays.

The Glasgow-born prop, 31, has chosen to prioritise his faith this weekend, meaning he will miss Scotland's Pool B clash with Argentina on Sunday.

"I don't see why there have to be games on Sundays," said Murray. "I hope things will change in future."

Geoff Cross will replace Murray, who has been dubbed by Scotland coach Andy Robinson as "the best scrummager".

Murray will hope that he has done enough in previous matches to get his place in the team back for next week's match against England, which takes place on a Saturday.

Back in 2008, Murray did play on a Sunday when Scotland took on France in the Six Nations.

But, after his faith deepened, he announced a year later that he would no longer be available for selection on Sundays.

At the time he said: "It's basically all or nothing, following Jesus. I don't believe in pick 'n' mix Christianity. I believe the Bible is the word of God, so who am I to ignore something from it?

"I might as well tear out that page then keep tearing out pages as and when it suits me. If I started out like that there would soon be nothing left.

"I want to live my life believing and doing the things (God) wants and the Sabbath day is a full day.

"It's not a case of a couple of hours in church then playing rugby or going down the pub, it's the full day."

Murray is not the first sportsman to be pull out of events because of his faith, one of the best-known being Eric Liddell who felt compelled to pull out of the heats for the 100m at the 1924 Olympics.

After finding out the schedule well in advance he decided to practise doing the 400m and subsequently won the gold medal, breaking both the Olympic and World records.

More recently, triple jumper Jonathan Edwards missed the 1991 World Championships. After much deliberation he changed his mind two years later, just in time for qualifying, and went on to win bronze.

Should Scotland finish as runners-up in pool B, Murray would also miss the quarter-final and then possibly the semi-final, a similar situation to the one New Zealand star Michael Jones found himself in back in 1987 and 1991.

He was eventually omitted from the 1995 squad because he would have missed both the last-eight and last-four matches.