While many expected Wales' poor run of form to continue in their 2023 Rugby World Cup opener against Fiji, Warren Gatland's side would ultimately rally to secure 32-26 victory on Sunday night.
The result gives them a brilliant chance of qualifying for the quarter-finals, although they were helped by some questionable officiating. Quite few people felt that the Fijians had a number of key decisions go against them over the course of the game, including former Welsh captain Alun Wyn Jones.
Wales played decent good rugby at times, although they were also disagreements among their players on the pitch.
Dan Biggar was at the centre of the biggest of them, hammering George North and other teammates for not intentionally putting the ball out of play in order to end the first half.
"Get the fu***ng ball off!"
Feisty end to the first half with Dan Biggar berating his teammates... 👀#WALvFIJ | #RWC2023 pic.twitter.com/4o2S8ZnEXN
— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) September 10, 2023
Wales would ultimately win the game, but Biggar's actions have not gone down well in certain quarters.
Former Wales man not impressed by Dan Biggar's actions against Fiji
While demanding the best of your teammates is something leaders need to do in top level rugby, it could be said that Dan Biggar overstepped the mark on this occasion.
Speaking on BBC's Scrum V Rugby podcast, Biggar's former teammate Josh Navidi said he was not a fan of his former teammate's actions on this occasion.
I personally don’t like it.
You know you’ve made a mistake or you’ve knocked a ball on; you don’t need someone on your back screaming at you for no reason.
I get the clock’s gone red and just put it out, but someone’s obviously passed the ball to him as well, so it’s just one of those situations that I’m not a massive fan of.
Playing in an inexperienced Welsh team, it could be said that Biggar should perhaps employ a different approach in order to get through to the rest of the group.
However, not everyone shares this opinion. Also speaking on the podcast, former Wales outhalf Nicky Robinson felt that Biggar did little wrong on this occasion.
Surely, Biggs knowns George North, and he knows how he’d react to that. Now if he thinks that George is going to be negatively affected by that, then Dan needs to be careful about how he speaks to certain players.
At times, you need players on the pitch to do that; it does get players up. I know that can be negative to certain players, but also, that was a poor decision from George.
He didn’t drop the ball – no one does that if you drop the ball or make a mistake, but that is understanding the game situation from a man who’s got 100 caps for Wales to go ‘we don’t need to pass this ball’.
Wales have one foot in the quarter-final as a result of this victory, with victories over Portugal and Georgia in the weeks likely enough to secure a top two finish in their pool.
SEE ALSO: AWJ's Take On The Reffing In Wales-Fiji Shows What A Great Addition He Is To Irish TV
