Speaking after Wales’ 41-13 defeat to South Africa at Twickenham yesterday afternoon, Gatland said that he had been ‘honest and upfront’ with the Ospreys man and that his door is ‘always open’ for players to air concerns.
Earlier this week The Daily Mail claimed 32-year-old Parry, who has seven caps for Wales, was shocked to discover he was not in contention to tour Australia and was just in the squad to help the team prepare, having allegedly also been discussed in a team meeting as an ‘afterthought’ and given less kit than other players.
Clarifying his side of the fallout Gatland said:
“He left on Monday. I was surprised he left the squad. He didn’t talk to me. You need to talk to Sam because he hasn’t spoken to anyone.
“I understand his agent has been pretty vocal and stuff which is a little bit disappointing. Look, Sam came in the week before.
“I was straight up with him and told him what the situation he was in in the squad. We’ve put a release out to all the players that we’d picked a squad of 37 and we were only taking 34 on tour. I just wanted to be straight up and front him as a player. I’d like to know where I actually stood.
“I said that he was initially covering for Elliot [Dee] with the injury. So, I was clear on that. I said: ‘Look I don’t want to stuff you around, you’ve been brilliant for us when you’ve come in in the past and we’ll just see what happens with that’.
“So, I’m not sure how I disrespected him there. I talked on Monday about competition within the squad. I thought there was some real competition with the hookers. I didn’t mention them by name. I didn’t want to leave Sam out so I said Sam as well. If I’ve upset him there was no intention to upset the player.
“I just would have rather him come and see me and say about the way he felt. There was definitely nothing from me in terms of trying to disrespect him or upset him.
“I just wanted to be honest and upfront with him. I think that would have been hopefully a better approach than if you’d come and said that rather than just walking off really. But I suppose I understand how people take things differently and you’ve just got to deal with that. Whether he’s had any regrets.
“I know he’s good friends with Gareth Thomas and Gareth contacted him straight away and said ‘look, just get on the phone and ring him. Hopefully, we could have sorted it out.”
On the pitch Wales would put on a spirited performance to only trail by a point at the break, but would be overwhelmed by the World Champions in the second-half who would run in five tries in a convincing win. Jesse Kriel, Makazole Mapimpi, Bongi Mbonambi and debutant Edwill van der Merwe all going over for the Springboks.
Despite the scoreline, Gatland would see positives from his young and depleted side.
“We dug in in the first half and we just had to make sure in those big moments we stayed switched on. It’s pretty crucial for us.
“For me, there’s lots of positives to build on,” continued Gatland.
“I thought we defended well at times and I thought Dewi Lake was outstanding today.
“I was reasonably pleased with that. A couple of tough calls went against us which was a bit hard to take. But there’s some really good things for us to work on.”
“There were a lot of positives to take, especially when we were under the pump with two early cards.
“We’ve got to identify certain areas where we can get better. We will look at the impact off the bench but also nailing big moments.
“We were guilty of missing a few opportunities in attack but also we weren’t accurate in defence when we got caught out a few times.
“But that is about experience and a lot of players out there will have learned a lot from it.”
[Lead image: Welsh Rugby Union]
