Angry Pivac puts referee on report
Wales’ Kiwi coach Wayne Pivac plans to report French referee Ramon Poite to World Rugby after a controversial try to England in an Autumn Nations Cup match.
Pivac was irate that Poite failed to act after Wales playmaker Dan Biggar ‘‘was clearly taken in the air’’ in the leadup to the first try of England’s 24-13 win in Llanelli yesterday.
‘‘The TMO comes in and calls that, but he’s over-ruled by the man in the middle,’’ Poite said at the post-match press conference.
‘‘We then asked for him to have a look before the conversion was taken but our captain [Alun Wyn Jones] was dismissed 20 metres
away. That was disappointing.’’
Asked if Wales would raise the incident with World Rugby, Pivac said: ‘‘We’ve been doing it every week, to be honest with you.
‘‘Behind the scenes we review the performances of our players and in doing that, we do pick up things that we send through to World Rugby.
‘‘We’ll certainly be doing that on this particular occasion because I wasn’t happy with the first try of England’s.’’
Pivac, who has overseen seven defeats in nine matches since taking from Kiwi compatriotWarren Gatland in February, said the loss to England was a good learning experience for Wales’ younger players.
He had five British and Irish Lions unavailable, and gave flanker James Botham, 22, and wing Louis Rees-Zammit, 19, their first starts against top-tier opposition and awarded halfback Lloyd Williams his first cap in four years.
‘‘It’s been a little bit frustrating, but there have been opportunities for some of the guys that you saw last week and I don’t think anyone looked out of place there,’’ Pivac said.
Pivac said he hated to ‘‘sound like a broken record’’, but Wales were looking at the series as an opportunity to build depth in their squad.
‘‘If we look at the World Cup squad from 2019 to 2023, there would be a lot of guys in the age bracket of 33 to 38.
‘‘We know that there will have to be change and some of that is happening at the moment and some players are unavailable.’’
Pivac agreed the two-winsfrom-nine-matches record was ‘‘disappointing, but what we’re looking at is: are we improving, are we exposing players to this level and are we building depth?’’