'He may come in a laundry box' - Eddie Jones on Rassie Erasmus
England coach Eddie Jones said South Africa director of Rugby Rassie Erasmus would be desperate to enter Twickenham Stadium ahead of the teams clashes on Saturday.
Erasmus is currently serving a two-game ban for criticising match officials during the ongoing autumn international campaign. Incidentally, this was not the first time the World Cup winning coach was slammed by World Rugby as he recently completed a one-year ban for posting a video criticising referee Nic Berry after the first Test against British and Irish Lions.
“He may come in a laundry box, mate… I’m sure he’ll get in somewhere,” Jones joked.
“I’m not going down that track. The only thing I’d say is that we need to respect the referees.
"We need to look after referees as they’re an important part of our game. What’s happened has happened.”
Jones has made four changes to the starting line up with Tommy Freeman, Mako Vunipola, Jamie George and Alex Coles all returning back to the line up.
“We were pleased with Jack last weekend but we feel that Tommy Freeman is coming into some form. He’s got good pace and he will add something to the team,” added Jones.
“We have been really pleased by Alex’s progress. He’s someone who wasn’t in our immediate picture when we started the autumn, but because of injuries and other issues he has made his way into the squad, done really well and put himself in the reckoning for a World Cup spot.
“He is playing against some of the best players in the world. While he won’t be directly up against Eben Etzebeth, he’ll play against him and they are great learning opportunities.”
