LONDON (AP) — Wales coach Warren Gatland says he had no intention of upsetting hooker Sam Parry, who quit the rugby squad this week for reportedly feeling “disrespected.”
Parry walked out of the team camp outside Cardiff on Monday. According to the Daily Mail newspaper, Parry thought he was in the squad to tour Australia next month but was told he was involved only to help the other hookers prepare.
The 32-year-old Parry has seven Wales caps, one of them a start. He wasn't injured.
"I was surprised he left the squad. He didn't talk to me,” Gatland said on Saturday after Wales lost to South Africa 41-13 at Twickenham.
"When Sam came in the week before I was straight up with him, told him the situation he was in with the squad. I said that he was initially covering for Elliot (Dee) with the injury, so I was clear on that.
"I said, ‘I don’t want to stuff you around, you've been brilliant for us when you have come in in the past and we'll just see what happens with that.' So I'm not sure how I disrespected him there.
“If I have upset him, there was no intention. I just would have rather him come and seen me and said the way he felt.”
The injured Dee dropped out of the squad the day after Parry left. “He would have been on the plane,” Gatland said.
Wales brought in uncapped Efan Daniel to join captain Dewi Lake and Evan Lloyd as the hookers in the squad.
Gatland will name the tour squad on Monday.
Wales will play the Wallabies in tests on July 6 and 13 and finish against the Queensland Reds in Brisbane.
AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby
FILE- Wales head coach Warren Gatland before the Six Nations rugby union international match between Wales and France at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, Wales, Sunday, March 10, 2024. Wales coach Warren Gatland says he had no intention of upsetting hooker Sam Parry, who quit the rugby squad this week for reportedly feeling “disrespected.” (AP Photo/Rui Vieira, File)
ATLANTA (AP) — President Joe Biden and his Republican rival, Donald Trump, were set to face off Thursday evening for a debate that offered an unparalleled opportunity for the two candidates to try to reshape the presidential race.
Biden, the Democratic incumbent, will have the chance to reassure voters that, at 81, he’s capable of guiding the U.S. through a range of challenges. The 78-year-old Trump, meanwhile, may use the moment to try to move past his felony conviction in New York and convince an audience of tens of millions that he’s temperamentally suited to return to the Oval Office.
Biden and Trump entered the night facing stiff headwinds, including a public weary of the tumult of partisan politics and broadly dissatisfied with both, according to polling. But the debate was likely to highlight how they have sharply different visions on virtually every core issue — abortion, the economy and foreign policy — and deep hostility toward each other.
The current president and his predecessor haven’t spoken since their last debate weeks before the 2020 presidential election. Trump skipped Biden’s inauguration after leading an unprecedented and unsuccessful effort to overturn his loss that culminated in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection by his supporters.
Trump has promised sweeping plans to remake the U.S. government if he returns to the White House and Biden argues that his opponent would pose an existential threat to the nation’s democracy.
Thursday’s broadcast on CNN, moderated by anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, will be the earliest general election debate in history. It’s the first-ever televised general election presidential debate hosted by a single news outlet after both campaigns ditched the bipartisan Commission on Presidential Debates, which had organized every matchup since 1988.
Aiming to avoid a repeat of their chaotic 2020 matchups, Biden insisted — and Trump agreed — to hold the debate without an audience and to allow the network to mute the candidates’ microphones when it is not their turn to speak. There will be two commercial breaks, another departure from modern practice. The candidates have agreed not to consult staff or others while the cameras are off.
Trump and his aides have spent months chronicling what they argue are signs of Biden’s diminished stamina. In recent days, they’ve started to predict Biden will be stronger on Thursday, aiming to raise expectations for the incumbent.
Biden’s team too predicted that he would rise to the occasion, and expressed hope that Trump would be forced to address his positions they believe are anathema to voters.
Heading out of the debate, both Biden and Trump will travel to states they hope to swing their way this fall. Trump is heading to Virginia, a onetime battleground that has shifted toward Democrats in recent years.
Biden is set to jet off to North Carolina, where he is expected to hold the largest-yet rally of his campaign in a state Trump narrowly carried in 2020.
Miller, Price and Weissert reported from Washington.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during an interview in the spin room before a presidential debate between President Joe Biden and Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump in Atlanta, Thursday, June 27, 2024. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
Corey Lewandowski speaks with reporters in the spin room before a presidential debate between President Joe Biden and Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump, hosted by CNN in Atlanta, Thursday, June 27, 2024.(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., speaks with reporters in the spin room before a presidential debate between President Joe Biden and Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump, hosted by CNN in Atlanta, Thursday, June 27, 2024.(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, from fourth left, and current Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, greet President Joe Biden as Biden arrives at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Thursday, June 27, 2024, in Marietta, Ga., en route to Atlanta to attend the presidential debate. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp speaks in the spin room before a presidential debate between President Joe Biden and Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump in Atlanta, Thursday, June 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Nathan Ellgren)
Stacey Abrams, former State House of Representatives Minority Leader, former State House of Representatives Minority Leader, center, greets President Joe Biden, right, as he arrives at Dobbins Air Reserve Base, Thursday, June 27, 2024, in Marietta, Ga., en route to Atlanta to attend the presidential debate. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
First lady Jill Biden poses for photos with campaign volunteers and supporters at the Virginia Beach Democratic Coordinated Campaign Office on Thursday, June 27, 2024, in Virginia Beach, Va. (AP Photo/John C. Clark)
President Joe Biden, second right, greets supporters, Thursday, June 27, 2024, in Atlanta, Ga., before a presidential debate. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Joe Biden, second right, greets supporters, Thursday, June 27, 2024, in Atlanta, Ga., before a presidential debate. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Joe Biden takes a photo with a child as he greets supporters, Thursday, June 27, 2024, in Atlanta, Ga., before a presidential debate. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Joe Biden, left, greets supporters, Thursday, June 27, 2024, in Atlanta, Ga., before a presidential debate. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
FILE - This combination of photos taken in Columbia, S.C. shows former President Donald Trump, left, on Feb. 24, 2024, and President Joe Biden on Jan. 27, 2024. (AP Photo)
