Scott Murray insisted he was not a ”dirty player” after becoming the first Scot to be sent-off in a Six Nations match during the 28-18 defeat against Wales at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff on Sunday.
With Wales narrowly ahead at 7-3 midway through the first-half, Murray was dismissed by New Zealand referee Steve Walsh when, after being taken out late by Wales second-row Ian Gough (who was sin-binned), he retaliated with a kick to the Newport forward’s head.
”I am not a dirty player,” 30-year-old Edinburgh second row Murray told reporters afterwards. ”The incident in today’s game was a complete accident and I would never intentionally injure an opponent in that way.
”I apologised to Ian and to the referee as soon as I realised what had happened.”
Murray, who was winning his 73rd cap, now faces a ban of at least six weeks which would rule him out of Scotland’s remaining Six Nations games, the Calcutta Cup clash against England at Murrayfield on February 25, the match away to Ireland on March 11 and the March 18 climax against Italy in Rome.
”I will be liaising with the team management about the incident to determine a position for a disciplinary hearing,” the British and Irish Lion added.
Murray joined Nathan Hines, sent-off against the United States in 2002, as the only Scot to be red-carded in an international.
Scotland coach Frank Hadden defended Murray, saying: ”Scott Murray is not a dirty player. He’s very hard, very fair. I’ve seen the incident again. It was a late tackle from Ian Gough, well after the ball had gone.
”Scott was trying to get out of the tackle as quickly as he could and flicked out his foot. He wasn’t looking in Ian Gough’s direction at the time.”
Wales captain Gareth Thomas sympathised with Murray, saying: ”What’s important about that is that we don’t judge him on that. When he received the red card he apologised to Goughy. ”He [Murray] is a great bloke. He regretted what he’d done and it takes a man to apologise on the field.”
Wales scored four converted tries, full-back Thomas touching down twice, as they bounced back from their Twickenham thumping by England in the first round to build a 28-6 lead.
But Scotland had the last word with late tries from fullback Hugo Southwell and a length of the field dash by Chris Paterson in the dying seconds after he’d intercepted Gethin Jenkins’s pass.
”That was a very gutsy effort from our players,” added Hadden, whose first Six Nations march in charge saw Scotland stun France 20-16 at Murrayfield.
”Despite the circumstances, the early sending-off, we created enough chances to make it extremely close at the finish but Wales were a bit more clinical when their chances came along.”
And Wales coach Mike Ruddock insisted: ”There was great intent to our play at the start. We took the game to Scotland and scored a pushover try. It set the tone for us.
”We gave away a lot of penalties but Alfie [Gareth Thomas] showed his class with two great tries, leading from the front. We can still improve and we need to before we go to Dublin but it was obviously important we got a result.
”We definitely stepped up to the mark. We did exactly what we said we were going to do,” he added before pointing out that Wales’s early penalty try had come against a Scottish pack including Murray.
”We took the game to Scotland, particularly early doors. We looked in control up front. We pushed them over the line with eight forwards and stole a couple of their lineouts.” – Sapa-AFP