Wrong that Hill was picked in the first place

GIVEN the dysfunctional state of their national game, perhaps only Wales could find a long-overdue win mired in a sorry controversy entirely of their own making over the disappearing captain.

Instead of rewarding Scarlets' scrum-half Gareth Davies, Warren Gatland gave the armband to Cory Hill, the ex-Cardiff lock who quit the Wales squad three years ago to sign for a relatively unknown club in Japan. Elevation to the captaincy exposed him to questions about his involvement among a group of men responsible for damaging a property occupied by a mother and her children.

Hill tackled the issue head on, telling reporters last Wednesday: “I made a mistake and I am sorry.”

The following day BBC Wales spoke to the unnamed mother concerned who expressed her ‘disgust' at Hill becoming captain of Wales. She said she had met Gatland at the Welsh Assembly HQ in May last year and told him about the ‘devastating' effect of the attack on her home.

BBC Wales informed the Welsh camp before Friday's match in Brisbane of the story (which they didn't run until late Friday night) and offered them the right of reply. Shortly before kick-off Hill had withdrawn citing ‘personal reasons'.

Nigel Walker, the WRU's director of rugby who was with Gatland at The Senedd meeting, said in the BBC report that the woman had endured ‘a deep trauma. We understood fully the impact of that night on her and her family'.

So why was Hill made captain? Gatland admitted he made a mistake. Walker told the BBC that ‘we got this wrong?'

Amid all the apologies, one question cries out for an answer: Why didn't someone at the WRU advise Gatland not to pick Hill as captain before making the announcement. If they didn't know at the time, why not….?