Not a coach to hold back with his point of view Eddie Jones challenged World Rugby to do something about the refereeing of the scrum. Jones complained that his England team was not allowed to gain enough advantage when they dominated the Irish scrum in their defeat to Ireland in Twickenham.
He also bemoaned the fact that there were no yellow cards shown to Irish players for constant infringement.
Jones, however had no complaints about the red card that was given to his secondrow Charlie Ewels, who made a high tackle on James Ryan and forced him out of the match after just under two minutes of play.
After examination of the replays, Ewels was sent to the line, his tackle clearly too high and his head colliding with the face of Ryan.
“I’m a bit disappointed the referee didn’t allow us to scrum fully,” said Jones. “That would be my only complaint. And we weren’t allowed to play advantage away from the scrum.
“We got four scrum penalties and there was no sign of a yellow card. If World Rugby wants to have a scrum in the game they have got to allow strong scrums to allow themselves to dominate. We’re a bit disappointed we didn’t get a lot more out of that mate.
“He (Ewels) is disappointed. No one apportions blame. It was a genuine attempt to make a good tackle. His head was just in the wrong spot and we’ve got no questions about the red card.”
Johnny Sexton and Andy Farrell both said they hoped England would beat France next week, which would benefit Ireland in the championship. But England may do so without some of their frontline players.
“(Kyle) Sinckler has got a concussion so he’ll go through all the protocols,” said Jones. “Tom Curry is a little bit worse for wear mate. I don’t think he’ll be participating in the next game.”
Jones said little but the Irish performance but was impressed with how 14-man England went about playing the game
“Great spirit, great tactical discipline,” said Jones. “We got to about 15 all, then controlling the game, and we just made a couple of mistakes that allowed them into the game.
“But it’s a great learning experience for this team. I couldn’t be prouder of them, the older guys like Courtney (Lawes), (Ellis) Genge, Jamie George played beautifully. The young guys adapted very well and they’ll learn a lot about that.”
Lawes added to what his coach said and in the context of being ready for the World Cup in France next year, saw more of the positives from the England efforts than negative
“I’m incredibly proud of the boys,” said the England captain. “To be honest we got very excited when the challenge (14 men) was presented to us. That just shows you where we are as a group.
“I don’t think for a minute we ever gave up. We can take loads out of that game. Obviously, there’s bits and bobs we can learn from but for the most part we did everything we said we wanted to do and that was play for each other and give it everything we’ve got.”
