Wales boss Warren Gatland was left unimpressed after an incident involving New Zealand's Andrew Hore went unpunished on Saturday in Cardiff.
Hore was caught on camera delivering what appeared to be a swinging punch to the head of Bradley Davies, with the Wales lock then forced to leave the field. The incident was not punished at the time, but Hore appears certain to be cited.
"It does not look the best in the world, it looks like he has been caught from behind, I don't know whether it is a swinging arm or not," said Gatland.
"You do not associate the All Blacks as being a side that resort to cheap shots and I hope that is not the case and that maybe it was an accident.
"Bradley has gone down in a heap, we had to admit him to hospital, he doesn't quite know where he is at but fingers crossed he recovers.
"He was a big loss to us and it took us a bit of time to cope."
Overall Gatland was proud of his players for sticking with the All Blacks despite finishing far behind on the scoreboard, with the home side scoring two tries through Scott Williams and Alex Cuthbert.
"We could have thrown in the towel against the world champions but we didn't do that," added Gatland.
"I thought we grew into the game and took the game to them in the second half. I'm proud of the way we stole territory and possession in the second half but unfortunately we weren't able to do it in the first and the game got away from us.
"We wanted to take the game to the All Blacks. You've got to take some risks against them."
Comments
liam2me says...
Cowardly is the only fitting description
Posted 02:37 25th November 2012
paulynz says...
Very gracious of Gatland to suggest that it may have been an accident. It didn't look accidental. Citing expected but who knows what might happen these days!!
Posted 02:10 25th November 2012
nzmaoriboy says...
Reckless(dumb) swinging ARM....(??Swinging punch???) Anyone seeing a punch must be pretty DELICATE (being PC) love how it appears to get worse and worse in the telling. Just waiting for the UK media to cling onto this piece of thuggery (which it was)Dont waste headlines as the judicary(or the IRB) will deal with it eventually. For the AB's are the exception to the rule in the UK...Accentuate the negative..eliminate the positive! he he..lucky Hika Elliots there (MMA extraordinaire) so if he does something like that HE MEANS IT.
Posted 01:38 25th November 2012
Kiwidiver says...
Didn't see the incident, and I agree with Gatland...I hope it was an accident.
This is the second ugly incident by my countrymen on this tour, and I truly hope that the judiciary panel give this a realistic punishment (as opposed to the Thompson affair) - NZ are playing great rugby, and don't need any favoritism - imagined or not!!
Posted 00:38 25th November 2012
Mace says...
Boo hoo go cry to your mummy's. Go coach pu$$y rugby league then!!!
Posted 00:19 25th November 2012
rugby_phile says...
Just saw the hit (on uTube), I am in OZ at the moment and the game wasn't shown here. I am embarassed, idiot!!! Whatever they give him, NZRFU double it. We don't need it or him, however good he is. Having been incensed with some of the cheap shots on Richie in the past, I think this is right up there. Huble apologied Wales and I really hope Bradley is OK. When he comes round he should take a private procecution out as well.
Posted 23:51 24th November 2012
Startledwombat says...
This taints the all blacks' win. In some alternate universe we'd have seen wales play an entire match against a 14 - man all black team. With who knows what result? No-one can say except that it would be fairer and more honest than what we saw here today.
There appears to be an unwritten rule - not just this match and not just the all blacks - that red cards will not be used before the ten-minute mark. So in this case just a yellow even if the ref had spotted it.
Posted 22:53 24th November 2012
jmanngod says...
It looked bad but in reality was just a clumsy attempt at a big clean out.... but with all the bleating from the rabid rugby press in the NH it is likely to be heralded as some kind of horrifying, death-escaping murder attempt in the usual way these matters are blown up to divert attention from the ordinary rugby being played up there.
If he hit his head (even by mistake) then give him his 2 weeks and be done with it.
Posted 22:45 24th November 2012