Gatland in scrum row after Wales scare
A victory for Warren Gatland’s experimental Wales team, then, but not one of which to feel particularly proud. A stodgy performance, a terrible game and a controversial, farcical finish, which saw the New Zealander accused of manipulating the rules to ensure uncontested scrums as Georgia pushed for a late draw.
Martyn Williams, the former Wales flanker, was among those to question the ethics of Gatland’s decision not to send tighthead Leon Brown back into the fray after Tomas Francis was sent to the bin for rashly charging a ruck with a minute left and Georgia camped on Wales’ line.
Adam Jones, the former Wales prop, did likewise, accusing his nation of “pulling a fast one”.
Brown – the 21 year-old Dragon who had been handed his first start by Gatland – had been given a thorough working over by the Georgian forwards before making way for Francis after 56 minutes. It was a tactical substitution and he was spotted warming up on the touchline, presumably in readiness for a return if needed, only to be stood down again when Francis went off. Gatland later said he had suffered cramp in his calf.
Nicky Smith, Wales’ other starting prop, had also been replaced in a tactical substitution. He too was seen warming up. And he too was suddenly declared unfit, although had he come back on his reintroduction would not have meant contested scrums anyway as he would have come back at tighthead rather than loosehead.
“I can promise you there wasn’t anything from our point of view in terms of trying to manipulate the rules or anything,” Gatland insisted.
Williams, working at the match for the BBC, was less than convinced. “If they are injured I do apologise but it’s a bit of a coincidence,” he said.
Milton Haig, Georgia’s head coach, appeared inclined to agree with that assessment. Asked whether he was confident that Georgia would have scored a try had they been allowed to contest scrums at the end, the Kiwi replied: “Absolutely. They [Wales] were pretty confident of that too. That’s why they wanted to go to uncontested scrums. It is what it is. I’m not interested in taking it further.”
European rugby’s minnows were hopeful of making a statement to the Six Nations blazers by conjuring an unlikely win at the Principality Stadium. They certainly did that.
But Wales got the first try. Rhys Priestland passed to Scott Williams before looping around him, taking the return pass and lofting the ball over to Hallam Amos in acres of space on the left wing. Things got very sloppy thereafter, though, as Georgia began to grow accustomed to the pace of the game.
Despite Wales’ early dominance, it was only 10-3 at the interval. And when the two teams came back out Georgia began to get the upper hand, particularly at scrum time.
One penalty apiece hardly told the story of a half which ended in huge controversy and no little confusion after nearly 89 minutes, and with Wales having to defend themselves against accusations of unsportsmanlike behav- iour. There was irony in that, of course, given the complaints that Wales coach Rob Howley very publicly made about France’s controversial decision to send renowned scrummager Rabah Slimani on for Uini Atonio after the latter suf- fered a phantom head injury during Wales’ marathon Six Nations defeat by France earlier this year.
Howley had said on that occasion that there was “evidence to suggest the integrity of the game has been brought into disrepute,” although after an investigation World Rugby found “no clear evidence” of wrongdoing.
This time it was Wales’ former players who were suggesting the wrongdoing – and it was their own country in the dock.
“A fast one?!” tweeted outraged Jones in response to a suggestion that Wales might have pulled a fast one. “The fastest one ever! They [Brown and Smith] were warming up!”