Gloucester head coach Dean Ryan remained defiant after naming Welsh scrum-half Gareth Cooper on the bench for the win at Saracens.
Gloucester boss names Cooper on bench despite IRB ruling
Gloucester head coach Dean Ryan remained defiant after naming Welsh scrum-half Gareth Cooper on the bench for the win at Saracens.
The Welsh Rugby Union had warned Gloucester they would be in breach of an International Rugby Board ruling if Cooper remained on the bench for Sunday's 25-21 Guinness Premiership win.
Under IRB regulations, Wales have first call on their players during the official November international window.
Cooper did not play against Canada on Friday night but has been training with the squad and is expected to involved against New Zealand next weekend.
But after seeing the returning Anthony Allen and Olly Morgan score tries along with Lesley Vainikolo to take Gloucester up to fifth, Ryan insisted he was ready for anything the Welsh Rugby Union had to throw at him.
He said: "Everybody involved in this situation knew of our decision when we took it at noon today.
"That includes Premier Rugby and every other body who are involved, so everyone knew we were going ahead and naming Gareth on the bench for the game.
"All parties who are involved have now seen that we have included him on the bench and have seen what has been said, so what happens from here is for other people to decide."
Ryan was pleased by the way his side went about their win, saying: "We've played very well today and I felt like we were back to the Gloucester of old.
"Olly Morgan has taken his try extremely well and Anthony Allen slotted straight back in.
"He is a player who knows the Gloucester way and we haven't played that way until today, even when we won, so I'm very happy to be back to that."
Consistent
Saracens director of rugby Eddie Jones appealed to officials for a more consistent approach to the game after seeing his side fail to capitalise on their scrum.
"The scrum is a difficult area of the game to manage," he said. "But today we dominated it without getting the reward we were due.
"I just feel that if people are penalised for persistent fouls in other areas of the game then the same should be true of the scrum.
"Ultimately it's about consistency and I didn't feel we get that at the moment with one of our strongest areas."
