Warren Gatland admits he made a mistake appointing Cory Hill captain for Wales' 36-35 win over Queensland Reds - after second-row forward withdraw from Brisbane clash 'for personal reasons'

Warren Gatland admitted he should never have made Cory Hill captain for Wales’ one-point win over Queensland Reds after the lock withdrew from the Brisbane game for ‘personal reasons.’

Hill’s selection as skipper had proved controversial in some quarters given that in 2021, he was named as one of a number of men who damaged a woman’s house.

The forward was never charged and received no punishment for his part in the incident. On Wednesday, he spoke about it publicly for the first time and expressed his remorse.

But on Friday morning, Hill stepped away from his captaincy role after his planned status as leader of the team had been criticised.

‘I’ll put my hand up and say I probably shouldn’t have put him (Hill) in that position. It was a rugby decision I made. It probably doesn’t help when you do get some negativity thrown at you. It does make things difficult,’ said Wales head coach Gatland, after his team ended a nine-match losing run with a 36-35 victory.

‘I probably could have negated that by not putting him in that position. I need to hold my hand up on that. I probably looked at it from a rugby decision and didn’t appreciate there would be some negativity about that call. I probably underestimated that. I thought he was genuine on Wednesday.

‘It’s something that happened over three years ago.

‘The facts are he wasn’t arrested or charged but he’s put his hand up and been genuine that he made a mistake. There are lots of examples of sportspeople who have made misdemeanours and come back into the fold. How long do you have to wait before people stop throwing things at you?’

Hill has been playing his club rugby in Japan since 2021 and this summer’s Australia tour was his first involvement at international level in more than three years.

While the Queensland game was an uncapped Test, it was also a much-needed win for Wales and only their second of the 2023/24 season in what was their last match of the campaign alongside a victory over the Barbarians.

It was a game that very nearly ended in defeat too as Wales came close to throwing away a 31-14 lead. In the end, they did just enough to come out on top.

Gatland refused to elaborate further on the reasons for Hill’s late withdrawal.

‘Cory came to me and said it was for personal reasons that he was pulling out of the match so I had to respect that and the decision he made,’ Gatland said.

Hill stepping away from duty meant experienced scrum-half Gareth Davies took over as captain and Dafydd Jenkins came into the starting XV at lock.

‘At least we’ve got the monkey off our back now. It’s been a tough couple of months. The pleasing thing is we came out the right side of the result,’ Davies said.

Familiar themes from Wales’ two Test defeats by Australia characterised their first-half display at Suncorp Stadium. Gatland’s side were ill-disciplined, as they had been against the Wallabies.

Their penalty count was high and Evan Lloyd saw yellow as a result. But, in the plus corner, Wales’ rolling maul was again unstoppable and Christ Tshiunza scored from such a position on the half-time whistle to open up a 24-14 interval lead. Archie Griffin grabbed Wales’ first.

And wings Regan Grace and Rio Dyer were both on the scoresheet. Grace was playing his first competitive game of rugby union but showed his pace to score in the corner.

Dyer went over from Sam Costelow’s cross-kick. Queensland’s two first-half tries came from Richie Asiata.

A Tom jones impersonator attempted to keep Wales’ travelling support entertained at half time and when the match resumed, Costelow kicked a 50:22. Exeter would not have been happy to see Tshiunza, their versatile forward, come off injured in what was effectively a dead rubber.

Nick Tompkins then extended the Welsh lead before Asiata completed his treble.

The Reds were growing into the game. Their ball movement was impressive as they worked the Welsh defence around. And from another fine move, wing Mac Grealy sped clear to score.

The experienced former Australia back James O’Connor was pulling the strings from No 10 and made it four of four conversions to bring the score to 31-28 in Wales’ favour.

You sensed trouble was brewing for the tourists. And so it proved.

Strong Reds maul defence stopped Wales as they looked for yet another driving line-out try.

It was a crucial moment as the Australian side then went the length of the field, playing some divine rugby.

Grealy was the one to finish it off and O’Connor’s fifth kick put the Reds four points ahead.

Back Wales came. Replacement Mason Grady crashed forward in a desperate bid to avoid what would have been an embarrassing defeat.

But the Reds won a questionable breakdown penalty to alleviate the pressure.

It looked as if the first Australian tackler didn’t roll away from the contact area and the second man in didn’t support his body weight, but the decision went Queensland’s way.

At that stage you thought Wales would be beaten.

But they went through several phases as the clock ticked towards 80. And in the end, they found space for replacement Kieran Hardy to snipe over.

Costelow couldn’t convert but Hardy’s try was enough for Wales to hang on by the narrowest of margins in what was an entertaining game.

It brought the curtain down on a near 14-month season for Wales.

‘We've been struggling to get over the line and get that win. It's excellent to get that tonight,’ said Dewi Lake, who captained Wales in their 2-0 Test series defeat by Australia and came on to the bench against the Reds due to Gatland’s late reshuffle.

‘Thank you to the supporters for sticking by us through tough times. Hopefully this will give us a great drive going into the autumn internationals and next year. Stick with us.’