Zander Fagerson incident was not even a penalty, never mind a red card, says Scotland's Hamish Watson

Hamish Watson has described the decision to send off Zander Fagerson in Scotland’s Six Nations loss to Wales as “a dreadful call” and absolved the prop of all blame for the 25-24 defeat.

Zander Fagerson's red card against Wales was harsh, argues Hamish Watson. Picture: Stu Forster/Getty Images

The home side were leading 17-15 at BT Murrayfield when Fagerson was dismissed 13 minutes into the second period by referee Matthew Carley who ruled that the Glasgow forward had made contact with Wales prop Wyn Jones’ head as he cleared a ruck.

Watson, the Scotland flanker, felt the incident did not even warrant a penalty, let alone a red card.

Wales scored a try a minute later but 14-man Scotland fought back to regain the lead through Stuart Hogg’s second try of the match only to be undone by a brilliant score from Welsh winger Louis Rees-Zammit with ten minutes to go.

“Zander will be fine,” Watson said of his team-mate. “That was a rubbish call. An absolutely dreadful call. That’s not rugby that call.

“Zander is absolutely fine. We’ve already got round him. He’s a great player and a big part of everything we do with Scotland. He can hold his head high I think.”

Scotland looked set to follow up their stunning victory over England in the opening round with a win over Wales. They led 17-3 after 26 minutes and looked in control. However, a Welsh fightback put a dent in their Six Nations title ambitions.

“We lost that game in the last 10 minutes of the first half and the first 10 of the second,” said Watson. “We lost that game when we had 15 on the field.”

Karl Dickson, the television match official, seemed to suggest a yellow card would have sufficed for Fagerson but Carley thought otherwise

“I've heard from other people that the TMO said it wasn’t a red, then the ref has overruled him,” added Watson. “The ref has the right to do that if he thinks that’s the right call.

“We as players strongly disagree with that call. As soon as I saw it on the TV, I was thinking, ‘That’s not even a penalty’.

“There’s not much else we can say. We don't think it's a red, a yellow or even a penalty.

“But that’s the way the game is going.”

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