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Six Nations 2011: Shaun Edwards to ride out scuffle and stay with Wales

France 28-9 Wales
Shaun Edwards, Wales rugby training session
Shaun Edwards missed the France match after a scuffle following Wales's victory over Ireland a week earlier. Photograph: Stu Forster/Getty Images

Wales flew back to Cardiff on Sunday without the title they hoped might drop into their laps and also without their defence coach, Shaun Edwards, who missed the game in Paris after being disciplined for an incident after the victory over Ireland a week earlier. Edwards, who is also the head coach of Wasps, was involved in scuffles with another Welsh Rugby Union employee, Fergus Connolly, one of the squad's sports performance consultants, at the team hotel in the Vale of Glamorgan. Connolly was not taken to Paris either.

It is understood from team sources that Edwards will be back with the squad before their match against the Barbarians in June, and it is known that he intends to fulfil his WRU contract, which takes him beyond the World Cup this autumn. There have also been suggestions that despite previous interest shown by Martin Johnson and England, Edwards might even consider a contract extension with Wales.

Connolly, who is from Scotstown in County Monaghan, is understood to have remonstrated with Edwards over the songs that were chosen by the Welsh to celebrate victory in an emotive match against Ireland at the Millennium Stadium. Ireland were indignant that Wales had benefited from a huge refereeing error that set up the deciding try, which was scored by the scrum‑half Mike Phillips.

The scuffle between Connolly and Edwards is understood to have started in a bar reserved for the team and their families, but there were suggestions that it continued outside. The police were not involved and Wales are determined to keep the issue "in-house", repeatedly saying it was a team matter and not involving the WRU. Three times on television and twice in his post-match press conference the head coach, Warren Gatland, said it was an internal matter. He would not elaborate. Later he said he had been "bagged" by the Welsh press when he relieved Ryan Jones of the captaincy and he did not intend to risk making another precipitate announcement.

However, Jones, who lost the captaincy after the disappointing draw with Fiji in the autumn, was prepared to speak out, saying Wales had missed Edwards in the run-up to their final Six Nations match.

The No8, one of the few Welsh players to perform well at the Stade de France, said: "Shaun always has an influence on this Welsh team, although I don't think the tries were due to defensive errors." That was a reference to mistakes by James Hook and Lee Byrne, who gifted two tries to the French second row Lionel Nallet in seven minutes, either side of half-time.

First Byrne was caught dithering and lost possession, then Hook's attempted clearance was charged down. Jones suggested there were more long-term issues involved. He agreed with Gatland that while Wales thrive as underdogs, they tend to fail when they are expected to win. On Saturday they started the game needing to win by 27 points, in order to overtake England and win the Six Nations title. They fell well short.

"It's a criticism that has been levelled at us a lot over the last few years, sometimes it's been justified, sometimes it hasn't," said Jones. "I think it's an easy statement to make after a poor loss like that and in an environment like this. You don't often get in positions where you are competing for championships which is what we were when we arrived at the stadium today. They come very few and far between, so when you are getting to my end of my career you feel you have missed opportunities. It's one of those things we have to deal with because it's a big year. Collectively we have to be far better on big occasions."

Wales will play three warm-up games to get things right before the World Cup, in which they will face the reigning champions, South Africa, in their first match. The French have one fewer warm-up match and their federation will be examining how last season's grand slam champions can have lost so passively to Italy before scoring three tries against Wales a week later.

After Marc Lièvremont's tirade last Sunday, preparations for Wales seem to have gone surprisingly well. But when consistency is required, as it will be in New Zealand, the cracks could easily reappear. Lièvremont went into the championship attempting to erase memories of the 59-16 drubbing by Australia in the autumn. Last week the FFR president, Pierre Camou, said Lièvremont would not be fired before the World Cup. However, had his team become the first to lose three matches in one Six Nations, there would have been plenty of people ready to wield the axe.

France: Médard (Toulouse); Clerc (Toulouse; Huget, Bayonne, 74), Marty (Perpignan), Traille (Biarritz; Estebanez, Brive, 69), Palisson (Brive); Trinh-Duc (Montpellier), Parra (Clermont Auvergne; Tomas, Montpellier, 73); Domingo (Clermont; Mas, 77), Servat (Toulouse; Guirado, Perpignan 70), Mas (Perpignan; Ducalcon, Castres, 66), Pierre (Clermont; Pape, Stade Français, 66), Nallet (Racing Metro), Dusautoir (capt, Toulouse), Bonnaire (Clermont), Harinordoquy (Biarritz; Lapandry, Clermont, 71).

Tries Nallet 2, Clerc Cons Parra 2 Pens Parra 3.

Wales: Byrne (Ospreys); Halfpenny, Roberts (both Cardiff Blues), Davies, North (both Scarlets); Hook (Ospreys; S Jones, Scarlets, 66), Phillips (Ospreys; Peel, Sale, 66); James (Ospreys), Rees (Scarlets; Hibbard, Ospreys, 66), A Jones (Ospreys; Yapp, Blues, 52), B Davies (Blues), AW Jones (Ospreys), Lydiate (Newport Gwent Dragons), Warburton (Blues; Thomas, Ospreys, 16; McCusker, Scarlets, 70), R Jones (Ospreys).

Pens Hook 3 Sin bin Hook 56 .

Referee C Joubert (South Africa). Attendance 79,390.

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