Outspoken Wales coach Warren Gatland may live to regret his admission that the Welsh camp considered cheating in an attempt to win the World Cup semi-final against France.
The former Irish coach made the honest revelation that he considered telling one of his props to fake an injury after the withdrawal through injury of Adam Jones so that there would be no option but to hold uncontested scrums for the remainder of the game.
“We’d already lost Adam Jones, and we discussed in the (coaches) box whether we would fake an injury to one of our props and go to uncontested scrums,” Gatland said.
“But morally, I made the decision it wasn’t the right thing to do.
“We could easily have done that in the first 25-30 minutes, but in the spirit of the game, in the spirit of a World Cup semi-final, I didn’t think that was the fairest or the right thing.”
In truth, Gatland should be applauded for his honesty, but his mistake was in admitting that cheating had indeed crossed his mind, as it probably does for every coach in the game of rugby. Could you, for example, imagine the monotone Declan Kidney coming out with something like that? Not on your life.
The IRB have admitted that they are “privately stunned” (then why say it publicly) by Gatland’s comments and will review them in more detail before deciding whether or not the Kiwi native should face sanction.
Welsh Rugby Union chief executive Roger Lewis has defended the Welsh coach’s comments and feels that he should be lauded rather than damned for speaking his mind.
“Warren Gatland should be applauded in this professional era where tough things and tough decisions are made that he didn’t go into that particular zone,” said Lewis.
“That was something that was considered… and the guys said ‘we are not going there’.
“In professional sport there is always an opportunity to manipulate the laws and that opportunity could have presented itself.
“But we did not go there and I think it is a tribute to Warren that he honestly expressed that. Warren Gatland is a brutally honest rugby coach. He is a very serious thinker and he tells it as he sees it.
“He said very honestly today: ‘One could have considered the possibility of taking a prop off and going to uncontested scrums’.
“But Warren honestly said: ‘Yes, we knew that was an option and it was an option we didn’t consider because the semi-final of a World Cup is so important, we have got to play the game.'”
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