ROSS MORIARTY ON HIS RELIEF AT QUARTER-FINAL SIN BIN... AND ON BEING WALES’ ENFORCER FROM THE BENCH
ROSS Moriarty has described the highs and lows of his Rugby World Cup quarter-final experience in Oita last Sunday.
The abrasive back-rower has revealed that he thought he’d cost Wales the game against France and ruined his international career in the process.
Moriarty came off the bench in the 27th minute, replacing Josh Navidi, who had just suffered a tournamentending hamstring injury.
Gatland has been keen to see impact from the Dragons back-rower off the bench out in Japan but this was not what he was after.
His first real contribution at Oita Stadium, within minutes of taking the field, was to catch Gael Fickou on the chin as he attempted to tackle the French centre.
“Obviously to come on and get the yellow card was disappointing,” said Moriarty.
“It was a mistimed tackle. I closed my eyes and thought he was going to run around me, but he stopped and ducked under me. I was like: ‘F**’.” He was right to be worried.
In the current climate, referees are taking a dim view on contact to the head. It usually results in a yellow card and can often – depending on the degree of danger – result in a red card.
Referee Jaco Peyper adjudged that Fickou had lowered his height and that was used as mitigation, sparing the Welshman a red card for which he would have been remembered for the rest of his career.
But when Moriarty was stood next to Peyper, waiting for skipper Alun Wyn Jones to come over so the South African official could explain his decision, all sorts went through his head.
He admitted: “I had only been on for 90 seconds and I was thinking to myself: ‘If he gives me a red card this is the end of me’.
“I was just thinking, ‘please, please don’t be a red’. I knew how bad that would be for the team. I’ve been in that situation before and it’s not a nice feeling.
“I never go into a game intending to do anything that would get me a card or put the team at any risk of not winning.”
And that’s exactly what he thought he’d done.
Wales had fought their way back into the game but the yellow card halted their charge back into the game.
Two minutes after Moriarty was sent to the naughty chair, rampant France centre Vrimi Vakatawa scored, with Romain Ntamack converting.
As he watched on, the 25-year-old was worried he’d made the ultimate mistake.
When asked if he feared he’d cost his side the game, he replied: “Yeah of course. As soon as I realised I had hit him in the chin – I thought I’d hit him in the shoulder – I thought: ‘F***’. Excuse my language!”
As anyone who has been sin binned at any level of the game, the focus is to make amends when you return to the field of play.
Moriarty is no shrinking violet and plays right on the edge every time he takes the field.
But the precarious nature of being on a yellow card was not lost on him. One more slip-up and he was off for good and maybe the rest of the tournament.
“I was worried. I knew I had to come on and be squeaky clean, make sure I didn’t do any more damage to the team and myself,” he said.
“It does stick in your mind. I was thinking “please, no one come near me!”
“Sometimes people slip up in tackles, players duck and dive.
“It’s a contact sport - it’s inevitable sometimes. Fortunately there were no other incidents in the game.”
But that’s not strictly true. There was another key incident in the game involving Moriarty but this was right at the other end of the scale.
The 74th minute, France had a scrum five metres from their own line.
A young replacement front row of Rhys Carre, Elliot Dee and Dillon Lewis got the shove on. Scrum-half Tomos Williams applied the pressure and managed to rip the ball free.
Justin Tipuric gathered it and was stopped inches short.
Somebody had to finish the job and get Wales to within a point.
“I was running towards the ball and just thinking ‘I can’t mess this up’. I didn’t even want to reach out in case someone came from nowhere and kicked the ball out of my hands.
So I just landed on my head first and got the ball under my chest to make sure no one could come in and get it. That was slow-motion from myself, but it was a great scrum effort by the boys, a great rip by Tomos.
“Tips said he didn’t know how he didn’t score it. To be honest, I was thinking, ‘Christ, he’s basically over the line, now someone has to do it now’.
“It ended up being me but it could have been any of us. It was probably the easiest try I’ve ever scored but probably the most nervous I’ve been scoring one.”
But score it he did and then Dan Biggar nervelessly slotted the conversion to move Wales in front for the first time in the match with just six minutes remaining.
It was a score that booked Wales’ place in this weekend’s semi-final against South Africa.
Moriarty is expected to start in Yokohama now Navidi is ruled out and if he does he’ll follow in the footsteps of his father Paul and uncle Richard, who both played in the 1987 semi-final against New Zealand. The Springboks provide the ultimate physical challenge, the saw facet of the game on which Moriarty prides himself.
As such, he’s relishing the chance to take on the Springboks.
“It’s going to be a very big challenge. We’ve had some good results against them in the autumn internationals in the last few years,” he said.
“This is a game I look forward to. I know what their forwards thrive on, which is being physical, and that’s what I thrive on as well.
“Some players go hiding when it gets tough, but I think I get better in those situations.”