French boss Fabien Galthie makes extraordinary claim that Wales’s players’ reactions led to Paul Willemse seeing red in Six Nations win as he insists opposition ‘specialise’ in getting rivals sent off
- Paul Willemse saw red for France against Wales in the Six Nations on Saturday
- Boss Fabien Galthie has claimed that Wales are experts in persuading referees
- Galthie urged official Luke Pearce to watch France’s body language in a review
France boss Fabien Galthie extraordinarily claimed that Wales milked their reactions to make sure Paul Willemse was sent off in Paris last night.
The South African-born French lock was red carded for making contact with Welsh prop Wyn Jones’ eye while clearing him out of a ruck in the Six Nations game.
But far from agreeing with referee Luke Pearce’s decision, Galthie doubled down.
Lock Paul Willemse (left) is given his marching orders by referee Luke Pearce in the Six Nations
Willemse makes his way off the pitch during his side’s 32-30 victory over their Welsh visitors
‘I don’t think he deserves a heavy sanction,’ he said of Willemse’s red.
‘There is clearly no contact, or if there is it’s very limited. It’s absolutely not voluntary. If you really watch the reaction of the Welsh players, they specialise in making the opponents get red cards.
‘Their body language is quite clear. I hope the referee takes that into consideration.’
Welsh head coach Wayne Pivac laughed off Galthie’s incendiary comments before saying: ‘The match officials are running the game and they have plenty of replays.
France goach Fabien Galthie felt that Wales influenced the official’s decision via their reaction
‘As you probably saw, it went on for some time. They went through a process and that’s what the officials are there to do.’
Wales had Taulupe Faletau and Liam Williams sin-binned in the final stages, contributing to their agonising defeat.
Asked how they slipped captain Alun Wyn Jones said: ‘Credit to France for the way they were playing. Pressure created errors and we fell into that trap.’