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Warren Gatland says the referee change in the first half against Argentina ‘threw’ them and admits he doesn’t know what’s in his contract regarding his future as Wales head coach.
Warren Gatland says the referee change in the first half against Argentina ‘threw’ them and admits he doesn’t know what’s in his contract regarding his future as Wales head coach.
Wales coach Warren Gatland has placed his future in the hands of the Welsh Rugby Union following his side’s World Cup quarter-final defeat to Argentina.
Los Pumas came from behind to win a dramatic match in Marseille 29-17 and reach their third World Cup semi-final.
This was Gatland’s fourth World Cup quarter-final and while the New Zealander said he “absolutely” wants to continue with his Wales squad, the 60-year-old admitted it is not his decision.
On whether he was committed to the project given his break-clause, Gatland joked, “this is like an Eddie Jones question, is it?”
“I’m not too sure what’s in my contract,” he added. “If the Union want to get rid of me, that’s up to them.
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James Cole reacts to Wales’ World Cup quarter-final defeat to Argentina
“We’re all gutted about that as it slipped away from us. But you’ve got to take learnings – how do we improve?
“We probably played a little too much rugby around halfway and needed to be more conservative.
Wales players were gutted after going behind
“I’m incredibly proud of the work these players have put in. We’ve made a lot of progress with this team in a short period of time and there’s definitely more growth in us as a group and hopefully they’ll help us kick on.
“We’re going to lose some experience, but we’ve got some exciting players coming through, so we’ve got to put the disappointment of today behind us.
“We’ve got a Barbarians game and then we’ve got to start preparing for the Six Nations.”
A large part of the experience Wales will be losing is Dan Biggar, who scored a try in his final game for Wales in an international career of 15 years.
Dan Biggar celebrates after scoring the opening try for Wales
While Gatland rued “soft” penalties ahead of the break from his side, he praised the opposition for their dogged efforts.
“For us, probably a couple of soft penalties before half-time allowed them to get back in the game,” he said.
“10-0 up and I thought we were looking alright at that stage. I don’t want to take anything away from Argentina, though – a tough side, they hung in the fight and when they got their opportunities, they took them.
Argentina’s Joel Sclavi is congratulated by his team-mates after scoring his try
“When Rio Dyer makes that break at the end, if we can get the ball away, we can probably score then and it’s a different result.
“But, that was a tough Test match. The teams went hard at each other and Argentina deserve a lot of credit for coming away with the spoils. That is what Test rugby is all about.
“We possibly played too much rugby around the halfway line, they kicked and played a lot of territory and we had a lot of turnovers in that area – perhaps we needed to squeeze in there and play a bit more territory.”
There was a controversial moment when referee Karl Dickson, who had replaced the injured Jaco Peyper, had a big call to make in the minutes before Joel Sclavi’s decisive second-half score – Argentina second-row Guido Petti made contact with the head of Nick Tompkins going into a ruck, and the referee ruled there was no foul play given Tompkins was falling, despite Welsh protestations.
Wales protest the key decision from Karl Dickson
Gatland said he felt it was “at least a penalty”, admitting the disruption of the referee getting injured may have thrown his side off.
“It will be interesting to see the feedback on that [Petti] challenge,” said Gatland.
“If he feels Nick has dropped his height, I need to go back and look at it. I thought it was at least a penalty.
“I also thought Dillon Lewis was on the ball before they scored – those big moments can swing things in big matches.
“It probably didn’t help the referee getting injured. That was a little bit disruptive in terms of the game. It does throw you off.
“We were comfortable with Jaco Peyper and the relationship we have with him in terms of his control of the game.
“It is nothing against Karl but you do a lot of analysis through what referees tend to be tough on, what they look for.
“We hadn’t really prepared for the change. Sometimes that happens in the game and you’ve just got to deal with it.”
‘Wales the creators of their own downfall, but overachieved’
There was some ill-discipline in the game in Marseille
Sky Sports James Cole:
“They’ll be hugely disappointed – it was a valiant effort from Wales but the fine margins didn’t go their way.
“They raced into a 10-point lead and they were looking very good but they made some handling errors, they were ill-disciplined and they allowed Argentina to come back into the game.
“At 10-6 at half-time, they took the lead at 12-10 early into the second half, and Wales at the crucial moments let it slip.
There was actually a controversial moment at the end of the game where there was a shoulder-to-head collision on Nick Tompkins, the Wales centre. It’s been a big issue throughout the World Cup.
“We saw a shoulder into Tompkins’ head and it was deemed not a yellow card or red card, the referee feeling Tompkins was dropping so that is mitigation, and that was at a crucial point in the game – Tompkins had to go off for a head injury assessment.
“Without making excuses, Wales will admit that they were the creators of their own downfall at times.
“The line-out didn’t work, there were too many penalties, too many handing errors and they weren’t clinical enough when they got into Argentina’s final third.
“Dreadfully disappointing because, had they got through, Warren Gatland would have been taking Wales to a third World Cup semi-final.
“I still think that Wales have overachieved at this World Cup – at lot of people felt they wouldn’t get out of their group, they did that comfortably, they sent Australia home.
“Ultimately, it was a bridge too far, but they have made progress since Warren Gatland returned.”
Argentina will face New Zealand in the Rugby World Cup semi-final on Friday October 20 at 8pm.
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