Eddie Jones slams World Rugby for 'retrospective refereeing'

England coach Eddie Jones has criticised World Rugby for their "retrospective refereeing" following the recently concluded Six Nations clash against Wales at Twickenham.

A statement released by World Rugby on Tuesday admitted that television match official Glenn Newman made an error in disallowing Wales' Gareth Anscombe a try which head coach Warren Gatland described "a terrible mistake" after the replays suggested that the full-back appeared to have got his hand on the ball just before England winger Anthony Watson.

Jones is uncomfortable when calls made by officials are subsequently corrected, as happened in the quarter-finals of the 2015 World Cup when it was admitted referee Craig Joubert made a mistake that effectively cost Scotland a place in the semi-finals.

“They (World Rugby) have a record of doing it. They’ve done it before,” the England head coach said.

“I’m on a good behaviour bond so I’ve got to be careful what I say, but I just think that once the game’s done and dusted that’s the game.

“You can’t have retrospective refereeing of decisions being done. The game’s done and dusted, so we’ve got to trust the referees and respect their integrity.

“When I say respect the referee, that’s the TV process as well. You leave it at that, and then you get on with it. One side’s won, one side’s lost.

“In Japan they have a great saying: ‘At full-time there’s no side’. That’s one of the traditions of rugby, you get on with it, you respect the decision.

“If you haven’t got the rub of the green then you know you probably get it in the next couple of games. The TMOs do an excellent job. They make a decision.”

Jones has arranged a training session with Georgia in London to help England introspect their scrummaging technique ahead of the Round 3 clash against Scotland in BT Murrayfield Stadium on 24th February. Sam Simmonds is set to miss the next two games for England following a shoulder injury but Jones will be relieved to see Nathan Hughes recovering from a knee problem.

“Georgia were just the sort of scrum we needed to scrum against – strong, scrummaged in a different way,” Jones said.

“The boys learnt a number of different things. They had the superiority early on and we came back well. It was an excellent session for us.

“Georgia use their head and shoulders in different ways. There are different ways of exerting pressure in scrums – some of it’s old-fashioned, some of it’s new.

“They do different things. They scrum for a living and our guys have learnt a number of different things.”

England are currently at the second position in the table with nine points from two games.

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