Gatland: Change of ref did not help

Warren Gatland claimed a change of referee put a spoke in the wheels of his Wales side as they crashed out of the World Cup losing 29-17 to Argentina.

South African referee Jaco Peyper injured his calf 15 minutes into the quarter-final and was replaced by England's Karl Dickson.

Dickson was involved in one flashpoint when Argentinean lock Guidio Petti shoulder-barged centre Nick Tompkins in the head but there was no action taken.

Teams spend hours studying the habits of officials and Gatland said Peyper's injury was a curveball they could have done without. Gatland said: “It probably didn't help with the referee getting injured, that was a little bit disruptive. It does throw you off. We were comfortable with Jaco Peyper and the relationship we have with him in terms of controlling the game.

“Nothing against Karl but you do a lot of analysis on what referees are tough on and what they are looking for and we hadn't really prepared for the change. Sometimes it happens in the game, and you have just got to deal with it.”

Wales were 7-0 up when Peyper limped off and 10-0 up shortly afterwards before Argentina clawed their way back into the game. But Wales fans were livid when Petti seemed to clatter into Tompkins on 63 minutes at a ruck leaving the midfielder needing an HIA although he did return late on.

TMO Marius Jonker brought the clash to Dickson's attention but he decided it was not worthy of a card of any colour.

Gatland added: “It would be interesting to see what happens in terms of the feedback from the panel. If he has felt Nick has dropped his height, he said it wasn't foul play, but I probably think it is at least a penalty situation. We felt Dillon Lewis was on the ball for a significant time when they scored one of their tries but sometimes those things can happen in big games. It is just the way it is.”

The game also marked the last international for Wales fly-half Dan Biggar and Gatland tipped Sam Costelow to fill his boots despite the youngster's interception pass that gifted the game breaking try to Nicolas Sanchez.

“It was just a rugby incident, you can't dwell on that,” said Gatland. “That is a huge learning moment for him. Those things can happen to any player, whether you are a young player or an older experienced player. I don't want him to dwell on it, I just want him to learn and think what sort of impact he is going to have on this team going forward.”