Dan Biggar addresses backlash over foul-mouthed rant in Rugby World Cup win

Wales’ Dan Biggar has responded after he was slammed for his foul-mouthed rants towards his team-mates during their victory over Fiji.

The 33-year-old was seen shouting at George North at the end of the first half where he was heard to have said: “Get the f****** ball off.”

There was plenty of criticism for the experienced playmaker, including from Josh Navidi, who is a recent international team-mate.

The pivot received the backing of his head coach, however, as Warren Gatland insisted that he was right to admonish North, as well as fellow centre Nick Tompkins.

Biggar has since had his say in his Daily Mail column and was adamant that he did the right thing at the weekend.

Under the pump

“I woke up to plenty of messages about the mouthful I gave to my good mates George North and Nick Tompkins at the end of the first half,” he wrote.

“It was a build-up of frustration because we had gifted Fiji some pretty easy territory. Our plan was that when the ball gets turned over in transition then we need to shift it.

“On a couple of occasions we did not do that and we got turned over so the boys were obviously trying to correct that, but it was the wrong time and the wrong place.

“You need some context and when you are on your own line in the last play of the half against Fiji, you need to get the ball off the pitch. I was furious we did not have the calmness to just hoof it into the stands because we were under the pump.

“I know some people have had a pop at me about the way I spoke but I could not care less. I really do not care what people think of me. If it happened tomorrow I would do it again.

He added: “That is who I am. We had a bit of a laugh about it after the game. As a group, we are good at handling adversity and confrontation.

“We have talked about wanting to be able to hold each other to account. It is not personal, I love the guys to bits. We make our points, take them on board and then it is all fine.

“There will be a few former players trying to keep themselves relevant and that is fine.

“It is a non-story. There were a few expletives, that is for sure. I said something along the lines of: ‘Use our heads, get the ball off the f****** pitch… we’re f****** killing ourselves!’ It is no different to how I have been for 15 years.”

Dramatic finish

Biggar was replaced with just over 10 minutes remaining and had to watch from the sidelines as Fiji almost pulled off an incredible comeback.

They scored two quick-fire tries to reduce the arrears to six points and were deep inside their 22 when the clock went into the red.

Fiji shifted the ball out to Semi Radradra, who had a clear path to the tryline, but he knocked on to hand the Welsh a 32-26 victory.

“We tend to make life hard for ourselves and that felt like the longest 15 minutes of my life. The last few minutes were full of errors from us and Fiji had so much momentum. Fair play to them because I am sure it was great to watch for the neutral,” Biggar wrote.

“When that pass went to Semi Radradra in the final play I think everyone in the stadium thought he was going to finish in the corner.

“He is probably one of the first players in world rugby that you would back to score from that position. I was sure that ball was going to be caught and dotted down with a conversion to win it.

“Sometimes in games you need a bit of luck and I think we got that bit of luck. I said to Warren Gatland in the changing room afterwards that it was my mum’s birthday that day and maybe she was looking down on us.

“She passed away a couple of years ago and my motivation at this World Cup is to do her proud. I like to think that my mum was giving us a helping hand from up above in the last few seconds.”

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