'Games being destroyed': Aussie coach slams 'ridiculous' All Blacks red card

England head coach Eddie Jones

Eddie Jones boasts a deserved reputation for delivering results at Rugby World Cups, which makes it all the more fascinating that, for his fourth global tournament, he has staked it on a squad of 31 players that contains one complete Test rookie and three more one-cap wonders.


Previously playing for Ipswich RFC and Colchester RFC, the once Gorseland Primary School pupil has earned himself a strong reputation playing on the flanks for the Northamptonshire club.

"They really stuck to the game plan, played with a lot of determination and effort", said England boss Eddie Jones after the win against Wales.

England's World Cup preparations began with a comprehensive 33-19 victory at Twickenham this morning that ended Wales' 14-Test winning run.

"I'm not going to go into reasons why he (Te'o) was not selected", Jones said at a press conference. "We saw a red card yesterday which affected the game, and potentially I think we need to get some consistency in that area of the game." said the England head coach. In the World Cup if you lose a player through a red card as New Zealand did yesterday, it makes the game very hard. We can't have that in the game. A bloke gets tackled, he goes to be in as second man and his shoulder hits the head and gets a red card.

Piers Francis also started the game, while Courtney Lawes came off the bench for England and Dan Biggar got some minutes as a replacement for Wales. I urge World Rugby - although I don't think they do anything at great pace do they - to get some consistency in that area because otherwise we will have games being destroyed by an inconsistent official making a decision on a law that's not clear. "I guess that's the challenges of the World Cup and the short turnaround in games".

The New Zealand-born Anscombe, who featured prominently during a successful Six Nations campaign for the Welsh, suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury in the World Cup warm-up fixture and was forced off the field before half time.

"I thought we saw two instances today where that could have happened".



Other news