Wallaroos centre Georgina Friedrichs accused a Scotland player of biting her in Canberra on Friday night, but no action was taken because of a lack of evidence.
The WXV Global Series Test was stopped in the 20th minute at GIO Stadium when Friedrichs approached referee Maggie Cogger-Orr complaining that she had been bitten on her left wrist.
Georgina Friedrichs shows her wrist to the referee. Stan
The experienced official looked at Friedrichs’ arm and watched several replays of the alleged incident.
Friedrichs was unsure which player had committed the act.
“Obviously, it’s a very serious allegation, but we can only work with what we can see,” Cogger-Orr said.
“And there’s no mark on her hand… so based on the available footage, there’s no conclusive evidence that there had been foul play.”
Cogger-Orr had a busy match, dishing out yellow cards to Wallaroos centre Cecilia Smith, No.10 Waiaria Ellis and 50-Test prop Eva Karpani.
Smith then returned to the park and copped a second half red card for head-on-head contact.
“This is not the way we wanted it to end,” Andrew Swain said in commentary.
Scotland led 17-14 at halftime and had hopes of a historic first win over Australia.
But Tim Walsh’s side rallied in the second half to ensure retiring stars Smith and Emily Chancellor went out as 38-31 winners.
Walsh will hand the coaching reins to Sione Fukofuka next year.
Fukofuka resigned as Scotland coach in August, returning to Australia on compassionate grounds.