WALES COACH Warren Gatland had marshalled his emotions by the time he walked into the post-match press conference. For much of yesterday’s Six Nations Championship match they must have been quite raw as he watched his team threaten to lose a match that on the balance of play they deserved to win. Salvation came in the form of a contentious refereeing decision, the second of two that had a pivotal bearing on the result.

Winning can occasionally distort objectivity but the New Zealander was gracious in admitting his team had been fortunate, a reference perhaps to the way in which they won but not in demeaning the merit of the victory, based on the performance.

Two incidents dominated the post-match conference. The first involved Welsh secondrow Bradley Davies whose tip tackle on Irish replacement Donnacha Ryan was dangerous, off the ball and deserved a straight red card. On the intervention of touch judge Dave Pearson, referee Wayne Barnes was advised to brandish a yellow card. It beggared belief.

When asked whether he felt Bradley Davies was lucky to escape a red card, he replied: “Yes.” The topic would be revisited later in the discussion and Gatland elaborated a little more. “I always try to be as honest as I can about an incident.

“It doesn’t look brilliant on the television and [also] having seen the replay. I won’t deny that it doesn’t look brilliant and I think we have to prepare for the worst.”

The player will be cited.

The second incident involved Ireland flanker Stephen Ferris receiving a yellow card for what Barnes interpreted as a tip tackle. Wales’s Leigh Halfpenny calmly slotted home the penalty to pinch the win for the visitors.

Sitting alongside Gatland was Wales captain Sam Warburton – he had retired at half-time after suffering a dead leg – who had been the recipient of a red card in the World Cup semi-final against France for lifting French wing Vincent Clerc and tipping him upside down.

He was asked to appraise Ferris’s actions. “We know he [Ferris] is not a malicious player. He’s a very aggressive tackler, so it was quite unfortunate. [In terms of] what happened, he didn’t mean at all to tip tackle like that: so I can sympathise with him a bit. But they [Davies and Ferris] both received yellow cards so there is some consistency there now.”

Not to this observer as they appeared appreciably different.

Warburton continued, referring to his enforced absence: “It reminds me of the [World Cup] semi-final a bit, it’s horrible sitting on the bench not being able to influence the game. I couldn’t watch Lee’s [Halfpenny, match-winning] kick. I was just waiting for the silence from the crowd. [I’m] chuffed to bits we got the win.”

The two incidents should not camouflage the fact Wales showed great resilience and belief, trusting in the individual and collective skill sets to win this match. Gatland pointed out: “We have been unlucky in the past, lost games in the last few minutes. I don’t think we played as well as we could; about 70 per cent of what we’re capable.

“To come here and be under a bit of pressure, go down to 14 men, come back and win the game, it showed some great character. That was the pleasing aspect of it. The displeasing thing was that a little bit of a lack of discipline, a few stupid penalties and a yellow card obviously, which at the end of the day could have been costly.

“We got out of jail. We have won our first game away from home. It’ll create a bit of momentum for us. Shaun [Edwards] made a really good point at half-time. When we were in the World Cup we were down against Samoa but we kept our patience. That’s what Test match rugby is all about; taking opportunities. The other message at half-time was for the backline to run hard and stay square and if we did that we felt we could get some good gain-line, which we did, particularly in the second half.

“I thought George North was absolutely world class, particularly the [first] try that Jonathan Davies scored. I think it’s McFadden he’s bumped off and offloaded out the back of his hand for Jonathan Davies. They’re still young but when they learn to run hard and stay square I think they are going to be . . . not bad,” he smiled.

In singling out the impressive North, Gatland identified a major discrepancy between the teams on the day. Wales bossed the collisions behind the scrum as a passive Irish defensive line was mangled in contact, tackles broken or in some cases smashed. “They are a big backline. I think on average about nine kgs a man heavier than the Irish backline. In modern Test rugby if you have that advantage you use it.

“We’re lucky that we have the options of George North, Jamie Roberts, Mike Phillips and Jonathan Davies; there a few more subtleties to his [Davies] game but he’s 104kgs. They’re very big men in the modern game. What’s vital is that you need go forward (ball) and when we do get some quality ball we can play off it.

“I thought Ireland did a good job in frustrating us at the breakdown. They worked really hard, they knew the sort of momentum that creates for us and we found it difficult at times to get the speed and the quality of ball that we require to play the type of game that we want to play. When we did get it, we were very dangerous. We need to build on today.”