Wales critical of clumsy Grewcock

Wales coach Mike Ruddock says England lock Danny Grewcock needs to review his actions after he kicked Dwayne Peel.

Trouble flared at a ruck in the first half of Wales' 11-9 win in Cardiff as Grewcock came recklessly over the top with his boot, leaving Peel bloodied. Grewcock was sin-binned with Wales captain Gareth Thomas for retaliation. "It's up to the citing commissioner," said Ruddock. "I'm not saying it's deliberate, but Grewcock did a similar thing for Bath against Leinster." Last June Grewcock was banned from rugby for two months for reckless use of a boot in a match against New Zealand.

Six years earlier, also in New Zealand, Grewcock became only the second England player to be sent off in Tests. The player himself and his captain Jason Robinson have both said that the clash with Peel was accidental. "If the ball is at the back of the ruck and I feel I can step over and disrupt it then I will do that," said Grewcock. But Ruddock feels that the England man should be more careful. "The boy himself should look at his actions, it was a clumsy piece of footwork," he said. "He's a great player and I don't want to knock him, we won't be calling for the match commissioner to review the incident. "I'm not going to go too far with the lad. It could just be a clumsy action and Dwayne had just a minor cut. "The referee's interpretation was that Grewcock was attempting to step over the ruck." Ruddock also warned his RBS 6 Nations Championship rivals that his team can make massive improvements. "We created more opportunities and also squandered them by taking more contact and playing more individually," said the coach. "We've looked through things on the video debrief and there were definitely a lot of chances that we wasted." In the forthcoming games, Ruddock may use penalty hero Gavin Henson as his first-choice kicker in place of Stephen Jones. "Our first aim was to get Gavin settled into the team, but it's something we'll talk about in selection this week," said Ruddock.
