I let the team down badly, acknowledges crestfallen Lee
FULL-BACK Lee Byrne held his hand up after Wales's latest punishing sin-binning and admitted: "I let the boys down".
The Ospreys star was shown yellow in the 25th minute of Wales's 27-12 defeat and just like Alun Wyn Jones's moment of madness against England, it cost his side dear.
While Byrne was off the field, Wales shipped tries to Keith Earls and man of the match Tomas O'Leary and the damage would have been far worse had fly-half Jonathan Sexton not left his kicking boots back in the team hotel.
"I'm gutted. I let the boys down," said Byrne, who was hauled off midway through the second half.
"I take responsibility for being sin-binned. Ireland scored 10 points when I was off the field. It was a key moment of the game. Yellow cards almost always are at this level.
"I don't need to be told how costly they can be, particularly after what happened at Twickenham. The coaches have drummed into us the importance of keeping our discipline. I didn't and I hold my hands up.
"I was at the bottom of a ruck in their 22 and was on the wrong side. As they went to move the ball away I just caught the ball with my hand.
"It wasn't deliberate, but I'm not going to quibble.
"The referee had just issued us a warning. I shouldn't have been there."
After Wales's third defeat of what has been a hugely disappointing championship campaign, head coach Warren Gatland admitted his side are not learning the harsh lessons of previous losses.
But Byrne insisted he wasn't hauled over the coals by the management for his Croke Park indiscretion or for giving away a needless penalty in the second half when he hurled the ball into the crowd after diving into the safety of touch.
"I wasn't rollocked after the game," he added.
"No coaches or players told me off.
"I know what I did wrong.
"And anyway, we're in this together as a team.
"As for that penalty, I couldn't really understand the ref's decision, to be honest.
"What did he want me to do? Hand the ball over to the Irishman next to me so he could take a quick throw-in?
"I don't want to make excuses, but I did find it strange.
"Moments like that seem to be happening to us in this championship.
"We're not looking for sympathy but our Six Nations does seem to have been defined by little mistakes, the odd bounce, the odd decision."
6 Comments
by Barney, Swansea
Tuesday, March 16 2010, 12:22PM
“Bryne is no longer the player he was. To suggest like Chris some sort of empathy for Bryne is laughable.
Here is a guy on 100k a year, plus being payed by Wales and he is dreadful on the pitch and his customary kick and chase is as boring as the excuses for him. His first yellow was for his normal silly stuff, the throwing of the ball, after he had taken the ball into touch was another yellow, if the ref had it in him, he could have seen a red.
No sympathy for him and if there was an up and coming no15, Gatland wouldnt pick him anyway, so this idiot knows he can get away with murder.
He is a paid professional but acts like a petulant child, defend him and you are one of the reasons Gatland will surely be losing his job. Byrne should be dropped and every other player that treats the Welsh jersey with contempt and a means to an end to fill their already inflated bank balances.
He should have been pulled off after 30 mins, he was useless, end of.”
by P, Swansea
Monday, March 15 2010, 6:50PM
“Lets hope the old Wales board or committee or whatever they cal themselves these days don't do anything hasty like sack the coaching staff. That would be deja vu eh?
Back to basics win first phase ball and coach the players or captain to know when to change tactics - if they have a plan b. C'mon Wales, big win on Sat is required.”
by shortfuse, neath
Monday, March 15 2010, 5:16PM
“could someone please clarify for me what CWMDAREBOY is refering to”
by Martin, Neath
Monday, March 15 2010, 1:41PM
“I agree with Cris of London. Wales were simply terrible completely void of ideas. Why didn`t an experienced player like Martin Williams change the lineout tactics when things were going wrong. Overall it was a very poor team performance. Wales are not playing positional rugby and there is no control in their game.”
by Cwmdareboy, Cwmdare
Monday, March 15 2010, 1:27PM
“What goes around, comes around
Wales versus Scotland this season when he took a dive in that game which most probably cost Scotland the game”
by Chris, London
Monday, March 15 2010, 12:45PM
“Wales were awful and defended abysmally, as for Lee Byrne we can't blame him as we should be able to defend better even with 14 men and it was never a yellow card. I've been watching rugby for over 30 year and I've never seen a play sin-binned for throwing the ball away. To make matters worse the ref seemed to completely ignore Ireland being continually offside in the second half. They could and should have had at least one player sin-binned in the second half. Having said that we were dreadful in every facet of play. It seems that the players simply don't have the consistency and mental strength / focus to build on any decent performances. How Gatland can think we are verging on greatness I don't know, we aren't even verging on mediocrity we are just poor. As for players being unavailable that hasn't affected us as we were equally bad with Ryan, AW Jones and the rest in the team. It concerns me that when Gatland first started he would be critical after we won and now he makes excuses for our most abject performances. The problem seems to me that the players actually think they are better than they are, they should remember that the last Grand Slam was 2 years ago and since then we've only won 4 of 9 six nations matches hardly great stats. And as for Gatland saying we aren't getting worse - how can he say that with a straight face as the results and performances show a side in serious decline. If that wasn't bad enough we have another tour of New Zealand to look forward to. Ladbrokes should start taking bets on another Welsh coach being sacked in the year before a RWC, it seems we always get back to the same point. I also think Gatland and the players would be better served by not talking themselves up through the papers and saying what they are going to do and doing their talking on the pitch.”