Wallabies match-winner Bernard Foley has reopened old Scottish wounds and rubbed salt into them in a spicy prelude to Saturday's Test between the Rugby World Cup quarter-final rivals.
Eighteen months after Foley's controversial 79th-minute penalty goal sent Scotland packing from the 2015 global showpiece, enraging fans in the northern hemisphere, Australia's super-boot on Tuesday maintained the Wallabies deserved to win that dramatic encounter at Twickenham.
In a bitter aftermath to the Wallabies' 35-34 escape, leading referee Craig Joubert was dumped from the semi-finals as Scotland legend Gavin Hastings branded his decision to award Australia an offside penalty "disgraceful" while others demanded the match be replayed.
The loss still stings the Scots but Foley maintains the Wallabies were worthy winners before going on to make a fourth Rugby World Cup final.
"It was an exceptional night in terms of how the game unfolded," Foley told AAP.
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"That whole game, I thought we were dominant but we were probably just not able to capitalise as well on the scoreboard and credit to them they were able to just stay in the fight.
"It was an interesting feeling being under the sticks with three minutes to go knowing that we were behind and that's the quality of the Scotland team; they're always in the game fighting to get that win and every time I've played them it has gone down to that 80th minute."
Just as last year's return bout in Murrayfield did, when Foley again broke Scottish hearts with a 76th-minute conversion of a Tevita Kuridrani try that earned the Wallabies a 23-22 spring tour win.
The Scots have since climbed to fifth in the world rankings with victories over Ireland, Wales and Italy in an impressive 2017 Six Nations campaign before opening their southern hemisphere tour on Saturday with a 34-13 defeat of the Azzuri in Singapore.
Foley says the Scots, while traditionally underrated, deserve every ounce of respect from the Wallabies.
"They're a side that has got a lot of capable players, a lot of quality players and know how they want to play," the five-eighth said.
"Every time I've played them, they've come out and performed. Just in terms of how they apply pressure, they're able to sustain that pressure throughout the entire game.
"It's how we react to that is the telling moment.
"So it's going to be a Test match that we have to prepare exceptionally well for and go out there and execute our game plan."
