Wales are considering asking the citing commissioner to look at the incident that led to Liam Williams being concussed 15 minutes from the end of Saturday’s victory over England at Twickenham.
Williams was kicked in the head by the England flanker Tom Wood as he was on the ground trying to secure a loose ball, and while Wales do not believe the action was deliberate, they feel it may be considered reckless. When the full-back tried to get to his feet he fell back to the ground and he will not return to action until he has been cleared by a specialist.
“There was definite contact between part of Tom Wood’s body and Liam’s head,” said the Wales defence coach, Shaun Edwards, morning. “It is something we are going to look at as regards citing and we will make a comment on that later on. It is obvious that there was contact with the head.
“It is a decision that will be made by Warren Gatland [the head coach]. We lost one of our best players in a position we are short in at the moment.”
Under the tournament regulations, a citing commissioner has the power to call a player to account for an act of foul play that he or she feels warranted a red card, regardless of whether it had been seen by the match officials. Teams are unable to cite players, but they are allowed to refer acts of foul play to a designated disciplinary official, although it has to be within 12 hours of the end of the match, which in this case is just before 10am on Sunday.
Wood apologised to Williams on Twitter, posting: “Really relieved to hear ur back on ur feet ok mate. Horrible to see u stretchered off because of me. Hope u have a speedy recovery.”
