George North left out of Wales team to face Scotland in Six Nations

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/feb/11/goerge-north-wales-six-nations-scotland

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Warren Gatland did not wait for George North, who suffered two knocks to the head during Wales’s defeat to England last Friday, to be given the medical all-clear before deciding to omit the wing from the side to face Scotland at Murrayfield on Sunday. The Wales head coach decided the welfare of the player and the image of the game were more important than picking his strongest team.

North, who missed a match in November because of concussion, was unhappy at the decision having spent the week going through return-to-play protocols, but such was the reaction on social media and in the game itself – the governing body, World Rugby, launched an immediate inquiry to establish why the Northampton and Lions’ wing remained on the field after appearing to be knocked out momentarily in a clash of heads with his team-mate Richard Hibbard – that Gatland decided the risk to North was too great and he was aware of the outcry that would follow if the player suffered another head injury against Scotland.

“There is a high chance that George will pass the concussion tests, but we came to the decision that it was better for him as an individual that we did not consider him this weekend,” said Gatland. “He took a couple of knocks at the weekend and given his history in the autumn, we looked at it from a welfare perspective. We also had to make sure we protected the image of the game.

“If he had not taken the knock in the autumn, we would have continued with the protocols and made sure, but it is all speculation. I can imagine that if we had not made this decision and George went out on Sunday and got another knock, how is that going to look for him and how would it look for rugby as a whole? It would give the game a bad image and we would have received abuse and criticism afterwards from all sorts of people. Give us a little bit of credit. We pride ourselves on putting the welfare of our players first.”

North has been replaced by Liam Williams and one reason he disagreed with the decision to leave him out was that he was not an automatic selection against England with Gatland admitting that there had been a lengthy selection debate before Williams, who was also challenging the other two players in Wales’s back three, Leigh Halfpenny and Alex Cuthbert, was named on the bench.

“Liam is playing well and his confidence has improved in the last 12 months,” said Gatland. “He can play at full-back as well as on the wing and it is good for the team to have a player coming in who was unlucky in the first place. I spoke to George this morning. He is not a happy man, disappointed that we ruled him out, but I told him that after taking two knocks to the head, the last thing he or the game needed was him suffering another one.”

North was assessed off the field for eight minutes during the first half on Friday night after receiving a kick in the face, but his clash of heads went undetected by the Wales medical team which is why he remained on the field. “If we had seen the incident, we would have done something about it,” said Gatland. The prop Samson Lee, who did leave the field against England with concussion, was named in the team as he underwent return-to-play protocols but Scott Andrews will travel to Edinburgh as a precaution.

Wales have not lost to Scotland since Gatland took over as head coach at the end of 2007. He considered making more than one change after the second-half collapse to England but decided to give players who had proved themselves in the past the opportunity for atonement.

“There are times when you have to make changes and others when you have to back the players and the forwards get a chance to redeem themselves,” said Gatland. “We probably got caught up in the way the game was played against us and we need to be more expressive and play a bit more rugby. We have to get right back on the horse.”

The Wales captain, Sam Warburton, said that his side needed to adapt to the way teams are taking fewer risks against them as they look to minimise the attacking and defensive threats of one of the biggest back divisions in the history of international rugby.

“We have spoken about it as a group of players and if it happened again I think we would respond a lot better than we did on Friday,” said Warburton. “We need to try and play a bit more rugby as that’s what we are about. When we play well we get our key players in the game and get some go-forward. Teams are starting to play a little bit less rugby against us and it’s how we can adapt to that. Scotland is a must-win game for us because we need four victories to have a chance of winning the title.”

Wales team to play Scotland on Sunday

L Halfpenny (Toulon); A Cuthbert (Cardiff Blues), J Davies (Clermont Auvergne), J Roberts (Racing Métro), L Williams (Scarlets); D Biggar (Ospreys), R Webb (Ospreys); G Jenkins (Cardiff Blues), R Hibbard (Gloucester), S Lee* (Scarlets), J Ball (Scarlets), AW Jones (Ospreys), D Lydiate (Ospreys), S Warburton (Cardiff Blues, capt), T Faletau (Newport Gwent Dragons). Replacements S Baldwin (Ospreys), P James (Bath), A Jarvis (Ospreys), L Charteris (Racing Métro), J Tipuric (Ospreys), M Phillips (Racing Métro), R Priestland (Scarlets), S Williams (Scarlets).

* Concussion doubt