Gatland insists Wales beat Georgia fair and square

WARREN GATLAND said there was no attempt by Wales to ‘manipulate the laws’ after his team’s dour 13-6 victory over Georgia ended in controversial fashion. Substitute prop Tomas Francis was sin-binned a minute into stoppage time, with both starting props — Nicky Smith and Leon Brown — having gone off just before the hour mark after a torrid day at the scrum. After a lengthy delay and confusion reigning, referee Mathieu Raynal ruled uncontested scrums as both Smith and Brown were deemed unfit to return. Loosehead Smith would not have been allowed to scrummage at tighthead on safety grounds anyway, while Brown was suffering from cramp. Georgia then changed their mind — which they are not allowed to do — by kicking the penalty to touch after initially calling for a scrum, before conceding a penalty as Wales held out to win. ‘We were as confused as anyone,’ Gatland said. ‘I can promise you there wasn’t anything from our point of view in terms of trying to manipulate the laws or anything like that. If Leon had have been fit, he definitely would have gone back on the field.’ Meanwhile, after coming so close to snatching a win over New Zealand, Stuart Hogg is targeting bigger and better things for Scotland. The full-back was brilliant throughout as Scotland fell agonisingly short of a first win against the All Blacks, losing 22-17 at Murrayfield. ‘If we’re not going into every single game to win, then what’s the point being here?’ he said. ‘I truly believe that we’re in a position to achieve something special.’ Elsewhere, Argentina prepared for Saturday’s clash with Ireland by seeing off Italy 31-15 in Florence, thanks to tries from Sebastian Cancelliere, Marcos Kremer and Joaquin Tuculet. South Africa recovered from last week’s hammering by Ireland to edge France 18-17 in Paris, with Dillyn Leyds and Jesse Kriel crossing for the Boks.