Gatland frustrated by decisions

Gatland: referee criticism

It was a high tackle and you see players get yellow carded for that, you see players red carded for that.

Shaun Edwards
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Wales coach Warren Gatland was critical of referee Craig Joubert's failure to punish Daniel Carter for a high tackle during New Zealand's 19-12 win in Cardiff.

All Blacks fly-half Carter overcame a calf muscle injury to kick 14 points in the victory, New Zealand's only other points coming from hooker Andrew Hore's 56th-minute try.

But Gatland felt Carter should have received a yellow card for his tackle on Wales' replacement scrum-half Martin Roberts as the hosts pushed for a try in the closing stages.

"It was a head high tackle," said Gatland. "A guy makes a break in the 22 and if that had happened at the other end then it would have been a penalty and a yellow card and all the officials missed it, so we are pretty disappointed with that."

Assistant coach Shaun Edwards was even more forthright on the incident, saying: "They should have played the last 10 minutes of the game with 14 men.

"It was a high tackle and you see players get yellow carded for that, you see players red carded for that."

Pressure

Wales relied on four penalties from Carter's opposite number Stephen Jones and despite putting the visitors under severe pressure late on they are now without a win in this fixture since 1953.

Gatland was also less than impressed by the decision to award a first-half penalty against flanker Martyn Williams for a deliberate knock on.

He explained: "The deliberate knock on against Martyn Williams was harsh and that cost three points.

"You look at that and it means we lost three points there and with the high tackle."

However, Gatland admitted the visitors had dominated large spells of the game, particularly the period immediately after half-time, but paid tribute to his side for the way they fought back in a thrilling finale.

"I though they dominated the game in the third quarter but the pleasing thing was that we finished strongly," he added.

"In the changing rooms after the players were gutted and maybe previously they would have been happy with that scoreline.

"We think we are closing the gap to the top sides and it was a good performance, but the challenge for us is to improve on that and it is important we keep improving through the rest of this series."

Surprised

New Zealand coach Graham Henry was surprised by Gatland's assertion that Carter should have been sin-binned for his tackle on Roberts.

"I think that's a bit of a stretch. Quite frankly I only saw it at the moment, I haven't looked at a replay at all, but it seemed to me he hit him on the chest and then slid," said the former Wales boss.

"But, until you look at those things over several views you can't make a decision on it. Let's leave it at that shall we?"

Henry was pleased with his team's display but felt that the video referee had been incorrect in not awarding a try to centre Conrad Smith, one of three New Zealand 'scores' which England's Graham Hughes was asked to adjudicate on.

"It was a highly competitive Test match between two good sides," he said. "Our guys have come a long way to play here and they did well under those circumstances.

"I thought we could have won by more and I wonder about the video referee. I thought that Conrad Smith scored.

"That would have given us a bit of a gap and maybe we could have used that, so that was a wee bit disappointing but overall we are pretty happy with our performance and it was a top quality game."