Yahoo Finance Eddie Jones: ‘We cannot blame referee but circumstances difficult to handle’
England refused to blame the referee Pascal Gaüzère for the defeat to Wales in Cardiff that ended their defence of their Six Nations title – even though they disputed the home side’s first two tries on the field when skipper Owen Farrell was waved away by the French official.
England have previous with Gaüzère. Their head coach, Eddie Jones, said Gaüzère should have been given a yellow card when he allowed Wales to quickly take a penalty here in 2019 in a World Cup warm-up before Anthony Watson had left the field as he made his way to the sin-bin.
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On Saturday, Gaüzère allowed Dan Biggar to take a penalty quickly which resulted in a Josh Adams try. Gaüzère had ordered Farrell to speak to his players about their discipline and the England captain was addressing them when the referee shouted time on and blew his whistle. Wales’s second try followed a fumble by Louis Rees-Zammit that Gaüzère ruled did not amount to a knock-on because the ball hit his right knee before the ground.
“Wales were worthy winners and we have only got ourselves to blame,” said Jones, who a year ago accused the referee Ben O’Keeffe of being Wales’s 16th player after a narrow victory at Twickenham.
“We cannot blame the referee but sometimes circumstances are difficult to handle. We have to take responsibility and if I want my dog to eat its food, I am not allowed to say anything [about the referee]. They were huge decisions but we cannot debate them. I would end up with a fine and that would not help anyone.”
Asked if the two tries changed the game, Jones said: “Maybe they got points they did not deserve and we had to fight to get back into the game. It made it difficult, but you have to be good enough to overcome it, no matter how unusual. There were times we gave away penalties we should not have.
“We played some good rugby but we did not adapt to circumstances. This defeat will only make the team stronger and the World Cup is a long way away. I was pleased with the effort of the team and the next game for us [against France] is massively important.”
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Farrell did not have any more to say about the referee. “We can only control what we can control and our discipline was not the best,” he admitted. “We have to have a look at ourselves because we cannot give away so many penalties. It is not for us to talk about the officiating.
“We got ourselves back into the game but did not finish it off. There is no point in talking about decisions now. I thought our intent was good but we cannot let teams off as often as we did today. It is the whole team’s job to make sure we are all on the same page and we have to make sure we are better at that.”
Wales’s third win out of three clinched the Triple Crown four months after they finished fifth in the Six Nations with the head coach, Wayne Pivac, facing calls for him to be sacked. “It feels great to be in this position,” said Pivac. “It has been a big few weeks for us and while some will say we have had our share of luck, you have to be in games to win them. It was one hell of a game and the players showed a lot of resilience.”
Asked whether he had any sympathy with England over Wales’s first two tries, he said: “If the decisions went against us we would have a look at ourselves and worry why we did not react quicker. And when you give away that number of penalties [the count was 14-10 against England] – with one player [Maro Itoje] responsible for five of them – you are lucky not to concede a yellow card. You could argue either way.”
