Wales coach Warren Gatland says he has been hurt after hearing second-hand comments from players that he didn't care about them.
The game in Wales has been on the brink of breaking point this week, with players threatening to strike ahead of the Six Nations clash with England this weekend over a contract dispute with Welsh rugby bosses.
However, any threat of strike action was averted on Wednesday - leaving Gatland to carry on preparing his side for the fixture with Steve Borthwick's side.
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In his column for the Telegraph, the Wales boss admitted that he'd heard some "emotive comments" from players which had hurt him.
Speaking about how he had been "caught in the middle" of supporting the players and being a Welsh Rugby Union employee, he said: "My role was to try to offer balance about the possible implications of what their actions could actually cause.
"I'm not sure that they had thought through that process about the potential consequences of the long term effects on the game in Wales of the game not going ahead. It would have had such an impact on all rugby in Wales, and potentially lead to one or two of the regions going under.
"I wasn’t talking to all the players, just our captain Ken Owens, and Alun Wyn Jones and I got the impression that some were trying to find a balance. The truth is that I was not privy to a lot of the discussions. In a week like this it was difficult to see the players get together on their own when I knew we should be spending that time preparing for England.
"But what hurt me most was hearing a couple of emotive comments from players, second hand, that I didn’t care about them. That was the hardest thing because I have always been about putting the players first and looking after them. But I just think it was the emotions of the time."
Gatland also spoke of joking as a coaching team about cobbling together a scratch side to fulfill the fixture.
"As a coaching team, we had joked about what sort of team we might be able to field if the players went ahead with their strike threat. We asked if Jonathan Humphreys was available and Jonathan Thomas and Neil Jenkins at 10. Jamie Roberts had just finished last year and Shane Williams is currently training for triathlons.
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"To be fair to Nigel (Walker) and the WRU, it was never mentioned to me. Nor was the prospect of delaying the match by a week, given that it is a fallow week.
"I am pretty sure I would have easily got a team if I had walked up St Mary Street and asked who was up for beating England. But thankfully we never got that far."
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