The Wales captain, suspended during the last World Cup for fighting in the opening match against Argentina, was sent to the sin bin by English referee Chris White just eight minutes into Sunday’s match in Melbourne for
connecting with Ross’ head with his right forearm.
Canada’s outside-half was hurt but not injured by the late hit and the Canucks are satisfied with the punishment handed out at the time.
The commissioner’s decision came as a relief to Charvis, who was banned fortwo weeks at the 1999 World Cup after a punch-up with Pumas prop Roberta Grau, but the backrower was unrepentant over the incident.
“I would have been very disappointed if I had got more than the yellow card as there was certainly no malice intended on my part,” he said.
“It was a difficult decision for the referee to make but unfortunately theletter of the law stated that I had to go off for 10 minutes.
“It wasn’t a great start and I made my apologies to the team – I’m justthankful that they pulled together and didn’t fall any further behind during the time that I was off.
“Once I was back on the field we could start running the patterns that we had been planning and they paid off.”
Charvis made amends after his return to the field when he spun over the line in the 55th minute to grab one of his country’s five tries as Wales successfully navigated a potentially tricky opening game of the World Cup.
“Unlike England or South Africa we haven’t got any minnows in our Pool and with four teams all competing for that one elusive quarter-final spot (behind New Zealand) any game is a potential banana skin,” he said.
“So we’re very happy to have got off to a winning start but we know we can’t afford to sit back at all.
“That was just the start of a long tournament that could last up to seven or eight weeks, so we have to stay focussed.
“We’ve got our second game to concentrate on now and after analysing the Canada game we know we have got plenty to work on.” Wales yesterday returned to their World Cup base in Canberra where they will
face Tonga on Sunday.
Before that, however, Tonga play an Italian side hoping to bounce back from their 70-7 drubbing at the hands of the All Blacks when they met in the Australian capital on Wednesday night.
