Wales coach Warren Gatland looks improbable to face an investigation following his controversial comments about faking injury. Gatland has revealed that he consider asking a front-row forward to feign injury and force uncontested scrums during the World Cup semi-final overcome against France last Saturday.
His remarks were made during a press discussion three days ahead of Wales' World Cup bronze medal match against Australia. Welsh Rugby Union group chief decision-making Roger Lewis said that Gatland should be praised for decides against the fake injury move.
The IRB are aware of Gatland's comments, although they have yet to make any bureaucrat response. Privately, they are astonished by them, but it seems unlikely the matter will go any further. Gatland had already seen prop Adam Jones depart with a calf muscle injury against France, and then eight minutes later Wales captain Sam Warburton was sent off.
Despite being reduced to 14 men for more than an hour, Wales scored the games only try through scrum-half Mike Phillips and only lost by a point, 9-8. Gatland, still dissatisfied by referee Alain Rolland's conclusion to send Warburton off, revealed that in the wake of the red card the coach talked about faking an injury.
I know a lot has been spoken about the red card,Gatland said.In retrospect, I can understand in any game under the letter of the law there are a number of decision referees can make.I just thought on that occasion, given the insinuation of a World Cup semi-final, to give a yellow card would have been an appropriate decision.
That is why they are appointed as the top referees in the world, because they make the right decisions.Gatland sustained:I will give you an example with what happened after that. We'd already lost Adam Jones, and we discussed in the coach’s box whether we would fake an injury to one of our props and go to unconcealed scrums.