Ryan Wilson has held his hand up to the Glasgow squad about his rush of blood at a pivotal moment in the Guinness PRO14 game against Munster – as the Warriors wait to see if there will be citation for a suspected violent act against their captain.
Wilson was yellow-carded for a late hit with Glasgow a man up and just two points behind with ten minutes to go in Monday’s game, and thereafter the Irish province scored two tries to close out the game 27-13 and consign the Warriors to their fourth successive defeat.
But focus has also been on an incident that followed where TV pictures appear to show a Munster player’s hand move to Wilson’s eye.
Bit of eye gouging maybe? pic.twitter.com/KOTHRma4XS
— We are Warriors (@WeAreGWarriors) November 23, 2020
The incident has featured on social media and speaking to the Rugby Pass Offload podcast this week, the Glasgow skipper said there were “a couple of fingers in the eyes from the Munster guys”.
“I think there should have been a couple more yellows, mine was the least (serious),” he said.
Head coach Danny Wilson said he was happy for the PRO14 authorities to deal with any possible citation for a dangerous act.
“There was a bit of handbags after and on the video there’s certainly a hand that comes across on to the top of Ryan’s head,” he said. “The camera angle doesn’t show any more than that.
“We’ll leave that with the relevant people to deal with. The PRO14 takes care of that now but I know it has been or is still being looked at. So we’ll wait for news on that.”
The captain had fronted up about his yellow card afterwards to his coach and his team-mates, continued Wilson.
“He fronted up to the group and apologised,” said the head coach. “He was devastated after the game and that shows the character of the man and his commitment.
“You want Ryan’s edge, competitiveness and aggression, and every now and then you might get a negative with that.
“But I don’t think this one was any more than a rush of blood and a bad decision. It cost us and he’s man enough and big enough to put his hand up for that.
“Ryan Wilson has been absolutely outstanding for this group at this time, I’ve been so impressed with his leadership on and off the field. His commitment to Glasgow Warriors is phenomenal.”
Danny Wilson doesn’t expect to be getting many if any of his missing 24 players back for the trip to play his former club Cardiff Blues on Sunday, a match being played in Newport because the Arms Park is still being decommissioned from its role as an emergency Covid-19 hospital.
“I think we’re all fully aware it’s been a difficult period,” he said. “It’s been very, very challenging and will continue to be very, very challenging because a lot has changed.
“We’re sat here today with 24 players unavailable to us, that’s a fair number for any squad, especially a squad that wasn’t completed due to the Covid situation,” he said.
“We’ve had to do a bit of getting people in, from loans, from local clubs, from all over the place, to try and deal with it. We’ve never been in a situation like this before and I hope we are never ever in a situation like this again.
“But at the same time, it has given us an immediate opportunity to learn about a lot of players. I have seen lots of squad players, I have learned about a lot of younger players, and it means for the future we can make decisions about people with a lot of information.
“And we can build on some of the experiences that these guys are picking up now, so there are positives, definitely. But I’m not going to shy away from the fact it’s been a tough period.
“We played Ulster, Leinster, Munster over three games which are three very strong sides who are unbeaten; the three best teams in the comp at the moment.”
Cardiff have been switching their squad around during the international window, but Wilson expects the strongest available team for a “home” game, although he hasn’t had the chance to reflect about playing against his former side.
“I imagine we’ll play plenty games against them and playing at a packed Arms Park will be strange – my last game with the club was the European Challenge Cup final we won,” he said. “Playing them at Rodney Parade in front of nobody will be a little different.”
