WARREN Gatland admits he made a mistake by making Cory Hill Wales captain after the lock was a late withdrawal against Queensland Reds because of “personal reasons”.

The former Dragons lock was named as skipper for the Brisbane clash on Wednesday but it was announced shortly before kick-off that he wouldn’t feature, with Gareth Davies leading the side instead for the dramatic 36-35 triumph.

The decision to give Hill the captaincy – a role he carried out alongside Ellis Jenkins on the tour to Argentina in 2018 – was a controversial one.

When with Cardiff, the forward was among a group who damaged a woman’s house in 2021.

The woman said she feared for her children’s safety but Hill was never charged by police and issued an apology through a representative.

The decision to name the lock, who played Test rugby for the first time since 2021 when making a pair of cameos against the Wallabies, led to a negative reaction.

"Cory came to me and said for personal reasons, he was pulling out of the match, so I had to respect the decision he'd made to do that,” said Gatland.

"I'll put my hand up and say that I probably shouldn't have put him in that position. I picked him on what he's been doing out here. It was a rugby decision I made.

"It probably doesn't help when you do get some negativity thrown at you, it makes things difficult.

"I could probably have negated that by not selecting him in that position. I need to hold my hand up in terms of that.

"I probably didn't appreciate there was going to be some negativity about making that call. Like I said, I probably underestimated some of that."

The head coach insisted that Welsh Rugby Union bosses were not involved in any of the rugby decisions taken Down Under.

“There's a lot of sportspeople who have had similar situations that, for whatever reason, are back in the fold," said Gatland.

"I thought he was brilliant on Wednesday [at the press conference], I thought he was genuine in terms of his apology for something that happened three years ago.

"The facts are that he wasn't arrested or charged. He's put his hand up and said he's made a mistake. How long do you have to wait before people stop throwing stuff at you?

"There's lot of examples of sportspeople who have had misdemeanours and gone back into playing."

Hill is back in the Wales squad despite playing in the fourth tier of Japanese rugby and will remain at Secon Ruggets next season.

However, Gatland has not ruled the forward out of contention for the next World Cup after he failed to play any minutes in 2019 because of injury then pulled out of the squad last year.

"What I can say is he's been absolutely brilliant since he's been out here in terms of his leadership, his experience and how he's helped the young players," said Gatland.

"He's got a one-year contract in Japan and then [it is a case of] probably assessing it from there. I think he would potentially look to come back to Wales and one of the regions.

"If that's the case, he's got that experience that he could potentially come back into the fold."