Wales coach Gatland sees little wrong with Biggar's blast at North

Wales coach Warren Gatland said he saw little wrong with Dan Biggar's outburst at team mate George North during Sunday's thrilling 32-26 victory over Fiji in their pool C opener at the Rugby World Cup.

Flyhalf Biggar gestured to the stands and berated North for not kicking the ball into touch to bring on the halftime break when Wales were under pressure in their own 22 and holding a narrow 18-14 lead.

“I didn't have a problem with it. It's about making people accountable,” Gatland said.

“There's nothing wrong with players in terms of challenging each other. We want that as part of the group so that everyone is accountable.

“For me, that peer pressure is huge in terms of that and taking responsibility. Those sort of criticisms aren't personal. We talk about it being a point of care.

“It's about the team getting better and individuals getting better because we need to be comfortable with being critical.”

Wales were hanging on at the end and Fiji could have snatched victory had centre Semi Radradra not knocked on with the try line in sight.

“I'm delighted with the win but we made it a lot harder for ourselves than we needed to, made some dumb decisions in the last 15 minutes,” Gatland said.

“We'll have a thorough review that we need to go through, some of the discipline and stuff. I'm a little bit angry about a few things but the positive is we won.

“I thought we were in control of the game but we know what Fiji are like and what they're capable of and we lost a bit of composure.”

Biggar, who missed a few kicks but was otherwise one of the better performers for Wales, said his team showed heart.

“We always seem to make it hard for ourselves, but what we make up for with effort and courage and determination is just huge for this team.” 

TIMESLIVE WORLD CUP PROFILES

Pools:

Pool A | Pool B | Pool C | Pool D

Star players:

Damian Penaud, France | Canan Moodie, South Africa | Selestino Ravutaumada, Fiji | Ardie Savea, New Zealand | Will Skelton, Australia | Johnny Sexton, Ireland | Antoine Dupont, France 

All the World Cup pools, fixtures and results here