Warren Gatland backs Dan Biggar over George North tirade in Rugby World Cup win over Fiji

Warren Gatland has given his endorsement to Dan Biggar’s rollocking of George North at the Rugby World Cup.

Fly-half Biggar dished out an X-rated tirade after North tried to break from deep in Sunday night’s tense Pool C win over Fiji in Bordeaux.

Biggar was caught on broadcast microphones shouting “get the f*****g ball off” at North.

Wales coach Warren Gatland says he does not have a problem with that as it is about making people accountable.

Gatland says there is nothing wrong with players challenging each other because they want that to be part of the group.

He says everyone is accountable, peer pressure is huge and they all need to take responsibility.

The Wales coach says that sort of criticism is not personal, it is about the individual getting better and they need people to be able to be critical.

Gatland’s side were also fortunate with the refereeing.

Wales made a World Cup-record 248 tackles to claim the win where they received four warnings for repeated infringements but only lost one player, Corey Domachowski, to a yellow card.

Fiji, in contrast, had Tagitagivalu sin-binned in a sequence where only one penalty was conceded.

Wales conceded a whopping 17 penalties and still prevailed, with their scramble defence proving resolute in the extreme despite the indiscipline.

Wales will play Portugal on Sunday at 3.45am while Fiji will face Australia at 3.45am next Monday.