Rugby: Warren Gatland wary of backlash over replacements

Warren Gatland has admitted he didn't use his reserves bench to the fullest against the Hurricanes tonight due to the backlash caused by his decision to bring six players in last week.

None of Welsh halfback Gareth Davies, Scottish prop Tomas Francis, Wales hooker Kristian Dacey and Wales lock Cory Hill played off the bench against the Hurricanes, and will go home to their respective countries without playing a match on tour.

Scottish prop Allan Dell played last week against the Chiefs as a sinbin replacement for Joe Marler, with Scotland first-five Finn Russell coming on tonight as a head injury replacement for Dan Bigger. Russell left the field once Biggar, injured in attempting to stop Ngani Laumape from scoring, returned.

Afterwards, Gatland made the startling admission that the reaction to his bringing in reinforcements from their respective touring teams Down Under - with many saying it devalued the jersey - forced his hand.

"Those players were called out as cover - that was the case," he said. "I know there was a lot being made of that... [but it was done] to protect as many of the test 23 as we could. If we didn't have those players there tonight then we might have had players on the bench on Saturday [for the second test] who might have been exposed.

"So much was made about devaluing the jersey and those things so we made a decision to try to get through game with as many in the starting XV as we could," Gatland said.

Asked again if could have used his replacements in the second half, Gatland said: "Possibly, you may have been a little bit more positive about bringing those players on fresh, but so much was made of that.

"I understand people's views... we made a collective decision that we'd make them injury replacements or as HIA [Head Injury Assessment] replacements."

Having his game strategy influenced by public opinion was a stunning revelation, and won't do anything to placate the criticism at home or in New Zealand.

Gatland was also asked about the yellow card for lock Iain Henderson, and particularly in the wake of the coach's comments about the All Blacks' apparent targeting of halfback Conor Murray in the first test.

Of Henderson's sinbinning for his cleanout of Jordie Barrett, Gatland said: "I don't think it was malicious... if he was trying to hurt him he would have really done a good job. The officials decided to give him a yellow card and I fully accept that decision by the officials."

But Hurricanes' coach Chris Boyd said: "I was a bit horrified when they were talking about doing nothing, because clearly he was tipped beyond the horizontal and the starting point for that is a yellow.

"It was probably an orange in my mind - somewhere between a yellow and a red."

"There are always swings in games," Gatland said of the Hurricanes' second-half revival to draw level. "Probably the most disappointing about our game was our exit strategy. In the second half we didn't kick enough. We only kicked eight times... when we kicked in the air we got rewards for it.

"I don't think the variation in our game was good enough in the second half."