Warren Gatland admitted “the better team lost” after Wales narrowly avoided a France ambush to reach the World Cup semi-finals. His side will now face South Africa but only after squeezing into the last four against 14-man opponents courtesy of a 74th-minute try from the replacement back-row Ross Moriarty.
Had Wales lost it would have marked the end of Gatland’s 124-Test tenure as their coach and, helped by the match-turning 49th-minute red card shown to Sébastien Vahaamahina, he conceded his side had been fortunate to survive.
“You’ve got to take your hat off to France. They were excellent and very unlucky. I definitely went through a lot of emotions today. We didn’t play our best tonight but we showed some great character and we’re looking forward to the semi-final. We’re 160 minutes away from possibly winning the World Cup. If you can’t get excited about that nothing will excite you.
“The red card was very significant but that sometimes galvanises teams. I don’t think anyone could complain about it. The right decision was made. It was heat of the moment stuff, he just made an error of judgment.” The Six Nations champions have now won eight of their past nine Tests against France.
The France coach, Jacques Brunel, said the outcome “was difficult to accept” and described the way it happened as “cruel”. He did not dispute that Vahaamahina deserved to be sent off – “it’s very clear” – but said there were “other decisions I don’t totally agree with”. He was particularly referring to Moriarty’s late try: “I think the ball went forwards,” Brunel said. “I’d like to see the decision again.”
The Wales wing Josh Adams felt differently. “We got a scrum on their line and then it was a moment of magic from Tomos Williams to rip the ball off their player. When it went to the TMO it was a case of ‘what is he looking at now?’ because we were jogging back to the halfway line. He checked and thankfully it was all good and we got that vital try.”
Wales’s opening try-scorer Aaron Wainwight, the player on the receiving end of Vahaamahina’s elbow, also felt the sending-off was justified. “We were in the maul and he had me by the neck to start off with,” the flanker said. “I was trying to get the ref’s attention and then the elbow came in. It wasn’t very nice at the time. I was a bit surprised the ref didn’t see it but thankfully the ref pulled it up and it was dealt with. Fair play to the boys they put the pressure on afterwards and saw the game through.
“It was a brutal game, very tight so we’re pleased to come away with the win. It wasn’t the best performance, so it’s exciting to see what we will be able to achieve when we do perform at our best. There are no celebrations yet – we haven’t got the job done yet. The celebrations will come after we come away with the trophy.”
