Wales hit back at Italy dirty tricks charge

Mar 7 2008 by Simon Thomas, Western Mail

WALES will go into tomorrow’s Triple Crown clash against Ireland with shock accusations of dirty tactics hanging over their heads.

Italy have written to the IRB to make an official complaint about the actions of Welsh players during the Six Nations game in Cardiff a fortnight ago.

In a startling outburst, Italian coach Nick Mallett has accused Wales of provoking flanker Mauro Bergamasco (pictured below tackling Shane Williams), who has been banned for 13 weeks for gouging full-back Lee Byrne at the end of his team’s 47-8 defeat at the Millennium Stadium.

Italy have also written to English referee Dave Pearson and the Six Nations citing commission to air their grievances.

Mallett launched his out-of-the-blue broadside against Wales while discussing his own team’s clash with France this weekend.

Mallett said, “In the last minutes of the game, there were things that happened to Mauro which caused him to lose his head.

“He was elbowed in the neck two minutes from the end and was high tackled when trying to pick up the ball in the last seconds and injured his shoulder.

“There is no excuse for the way he behaved and he should not have lost his cool, but there is a reason.”

Wales last night reacted strongly to Mallett’s comments, insisting there was no justification for what Bergamasco did to Byrne.

Wales team manager Alan Phillips hit back, “Whatever has happened two minutes before should not provoke anybody to put their fingers near somebody’s eyes. It’s not the done thing.

“You’ve got to remain disciplined. With the camera angles you have got these days, you are certainly walking the line. If you step over, you will get caught.

“Bergamasco is the type of player who plays on the line and these things will happen.

“Italy are trying to get the sentence cut aren’t they?

“The player has been suspended for 13 weeks for gouging. It’s other people who made that decision on what they’ve seen.

“To be perfectly honest with you, we haven’t kicked up a fuss about it. We don’t want any Italian players being banned because we want a full-strength Italian side to play against France and give them a tough game.”

Phillips continued, “We didn’t see the incident. We were approached by the citing officer after the game. He had seen it on the tape. We hadn’t complained about it.

“We are not in the habit of complaining about things like that because it’s best to keep out of it. It’s in other people’s hands then.

“I don’t think there’s any excuse for gouging or stamping on somebody’s head. Whatever happens beforehand, you’ve got to remain cool.”

Ironically, the accusations from Mallett come hot on the heels of Wales coach Warren Gatland pinpointing discipline as the key to success against Ireland in Dublin tomorrow.

“We’ve been really pleased with the discipline in our first three games, but we’ve stressed how important it’s going to be for us this weekend,” said the Kiwi.

“Ireland are an experienced side. They can niggle you a little bit, grabbing jerseys, trying to upset you and put you off your game.

“We’ve got to make sure we don’t respond to that because it’s a key to not letting Ronan O’Gara have too many shots at goal.

“It’s a key to not giving them too many penalties to kick to touch so their line-out can function.

“So that’s the big area for us, really making sure our discipline is on song and that we don’t give them too many penalties.”