World Rugby warns Wales over non-squad players
Thursday 24 September 2015 14:54, UK
Wales have received an official warning from World Rugby over the inclusion of several players who were not part of their 31-man World Cup squad in a training session.
Nicky Smith, Rob Evans, Rhys Patchell, Dan Baker and Kristian Dacey were among players involved in the session in Sudbury ahead of the Pool A game against England on Saturday.
Back-up players are not allowed to train with the squad or stay in the team hotel, World Cup rules state.
Wales, who have suffered a number of injury problems, said the players were providing defensive cover and had all returned home.
In their statement, World Rugby said: "The Wales team has been issued with an official warning following an apparent breach of the spirit of the Rugby World Cup 2015 terms of participation regarding team training arrangements, and specifically the inclusion of a number of players from outside the selected 31 player squad for a training session yesterday.
"Having reviewed the matter, World Rugby is satisfied that no deliberate breach was intended.
"And in addition to the formal warning to the Welsh team, all participating teams have been informed that additional players from the extended national team squad, including potential injury replacements, may not participate in any training sessions."
A spokesman later added a further clarification: "It must be clear that teams know their obligations under the terms of participation in rugby World Cup. Having opposed-training is fine but you have to do that utilising players not involved in your wider squad."
Wales coach Warren Gatland said he was mystified by the decision.
"The statement doesn't say we have broken the rules - it says we have broken the spirit of the rules. What that means I don't know," he said.
"We didn't do anything that we thought was out of hand. What does 'the spirit' mean? Either you have got rules or you haven't. We didn't try and do anything out of hand. If we'd been trying to break the rules we would have been sneaking players in. We had an opening training session."
