Australia and Argentina reach Rugby World Cup semi-finals to rubber stamp Southern Hemisphere dominance

Australia won an enthralling quarter-final against Scotland with a controversial late penalty ©Getty Images

Australia and Argentina triumphed at the expense of Scotland and Ireland respectively in today’s Rugby World Cup quarter-finals meaning there will not be any Northern Hemisphere teams contesting the penultimate stage of the competition for the first time in history.

A controversial late penalty was successfully converted by Bernard Foley to earn Australia a 35-34 win against Scotland at Twickenham Stadium in London.

It sets up a semi-final against Argentina, who earlier in the day scored two late tries to seal a comprehensive 43-20 victory over Ireland at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

Scotland looked to have sealed one of the great World Cup upsets through Mark Bennett's interception try with seven minutes remaining.

In the dying moments, however, South African referee Craig Joubert adjudged Jon Welsh to have played the ball from an offside position, giving Foley the opportunity to step up and score the three points which settled the game in Australia’s favour.

Replays appeared to indicate that the ball had come off an Australian player leading to a chorus of boos at the final whistle as Joubert ran for the tunnel.

Australia’s early dominance was rewarded when Adam Ashley-Cooper went over in the ninth minute, but Scotland fought back through a Greig Laidlaw penalty and then took a surprise lead thanks to Peter Horne's try.

Laidlaw's conversion and another penalty increased the advantage to 13-5, before Drew Mitchell scored Australia's second try, which Foley failed to convert.

Scotland’s forwards won a scrum penalty as Laidlaw stretched the lead back to six, but on the stroke of half-time, Michael Hooper went over the line for Australia.

The Wallabies still trailed by a point at the break after Foley missed for a third time, however, they were ahead within minutes of the restart courtesy of Mitchell’s second try.

Although Foley managed to convert on this occasion, Laidlaw’s boot kept Scotland in striking distance and after Ashley-Cooper had a try ruled out by the televised match official (TMO) for a knock-on, Tommy Seymour moved them to within one point.

The momentum swung again when Tevita Kuridrani went over for Australia after which Laidlaw notched up his fifth penalty to make it 32-27 with 10 minutes on the clock.

Bennett then dived under the posts with Laidlaw converting to give Scotland a two-point lead, before the late drama cost them a place in the last-four.

Australia's Bernard Foley kicked the match-winning penalty against Scotland ©Getty Images

In the earlier quarter-final, Argentina ended Ireland’s hopes of reaching the last-four for the first time ever.

Joacquin Tuculet and Juan Imhoff sealed a deserved win for the South Americans after tries from Luke Fitzgerald and Jordi Murphy had seen Ireland battle back from a sizeable deficit to move within three points at one stage.

Brilliant scores from Matias Moroni and Imhoff saw the Pumas take a 17-0 lead by the 13th minute with their early flurry of scoring helping them to repeat their 1999 and 2007 World Cup triumphs over the Irish.

Ireland started as favourites despite the absence of injured trio Paul O'Connell, Johnny Sexton, Peter O'Mahony, as well as the suspended Sean O'Brien, but they were dealt a huge blow when Moroni crossed in the third minute with Nicolas Sanchez converting for a seven-point lead.

Matters got worse for Ireland on the 10-minute mark as wing Imhoff latched onto a perfectly weighted cross-field kick from Santiago Cordero to touch down, after which Sanchez added the extras.

Ireland’s injury list extended when Tommy Bowe left the field on a cart, but his replacement Fitzgerald gave the Six Nations champions hope with a superb try on 26 minutes, which Ian Madigan converted.

Another Fitzgerald break set up flanker Murphy's score within four minutes of the restart as Ireland cut the margin to 23-20, but they were unable to build on a further period of pressure and ultimately paid the price.

Sanchez converted for a 33-20 lead after the TMO confirmed that the full-back Tuculet had applied downward pressure in the 69th minute, and Argentina's win was wrapped up eight minutes from time when Imhoff powered through for his second try of the game.