Section:GDN 1N PaGe:40 Edition Date:190812 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 11/8/2019 20:32 cYanmaGentaYellowb
- The Guardian Monday 12 Aug ust 2019
(^40) Sport
Rugby union World Cup warm-up
Jones claims
World Cup could
be ‘destroyed’ by
erratic refereeing
Gerard Meagher
Twickenham
Eddie Jones has warned that the
forthcoming World Cup in Japan
could be “destroyed” by inconsistent
refereeing, in an unprovoked rant at
World Rugby following England’s com-
prehensive victory in their opening
warmup Test at Twickenham.
Jones names his fi nal World Cup
squad to day but dodged questions
over who will be included, insisting
that the players would not be informed
until the morning. That means those
who impressed against Wales such as
Lewis Ludlam, Jonathan Joseph and
Willi Heinz were facing an anxious
wait last night with Ben Te’o and Mike
Brown – axed from the squad last week
after an off -the-fi eld altercation in
Treviso – in a similar position.
Instead, Jones trained his sights on
World Rugby. Referring to the red card
shown to New Zealand’s Scott Barrett
in the All Blacks’ record defeat by
Australia on Saturday, he described
the decision as “ridiculous” and urged
World Rugby to fi nd some consistency.
He also claimed that following the
same letter of the law, there were
two incidents in England’s impres-
sive win against Wales that could
have warranted red cards, believed
to be tackles by Aled Davies and Ross
Moriarty on George Ford and Piers
Francis respectively.
“I thought there was an issue with
the referee [Mathieu Raynal],” Jones
said. “We saw a red card yesterday
which aff ected the game. We need to
revised “sanction framework”, intro-
duced by World Rugby following a
summit in Paris in March. Jones has
previously been part of the governing
body’s law review group, which has
looked at ways of enhancing player
safety in the tackle, but he believes
Barrett’s red card – awarded for a
shoulder charge on Michael Hooper
- was the wrong decision.
“I thought it was ridiculous,” Jones
said. “A bloke gets tackled, he goes to
be second man in and his shoulder
hits his head and he gets a red card.
We can’t have that in the game. What
I’m saying is that we need to have some
consistency and common sense.”
Jones had less to complain about
with his players’ performance and
was able to deliver a positive injury
bulletin on Tom Curry, who made way
after a hugely impressive half an hour
with a shoulder injury. “He’s fi ne. He’s
got a bit of an AC knock but he’ll be
all right.” Similarly, Jones confi rmed
there were no long-term concerns
over Sam Underhill and Henry Slade,
who were both late withdrawals on
Friday. Underhill was seen in the
stands wearing a protective boot, Slade
a knee brace but both are “all good”,
according to Jones.
Warren Gatland meanwhile has
more of an injury headache after
Gareth Anscombe limped off with a
knee injury, capping a diffi cult day
for Wales, who were denied the 15th
consecutive win that would have
moved them above New Zealand as
No 1 team in the world. Anscombe will
have a scan today and Gatland said: “I
wouldn’t want to be naming my squad
on Monday, I can tell you that. If it’s
just a strain of the ligament, [Gareth
will] be out for a few weeks. We’ll know
more details after the scan.”
Meanwhile, Ludlam acknowledged
he was facing a night of little sleep at
England’s team hotel after streng-
thening his claim for a place on the
plane to Japan after an impressive
debut. Ludlam may ultimately benefi t
from Brad Shields’s ongoing foot injury
with Ruaridh McConnochie similarly
hopefully of being included, possibly
as injury cover because of concerns
over Jack Nowell’s fi tness.
“We’ll fi nd out some time tomorrow
but we can’t do anything now,” Ludlam
said. “It was surreal for me. This time
last year I was fi ghting for a contract.
These boys have welcomed me in over
the last seven weeks and I wanted to
rip in for them and do them proud. It
was a special occasion for me.”
England’s
muscle men
lay waste to
Welsh bid
for top spot
England 33
Wales 19
Robert Kitson
TwickenhamThis was supposed to be Wales’s big
moment, a chance to knock New
Zealand off their decade-long perch
at the top of the World Rugby rank-
ings. Instead a shirt-sleeved August
crowd saw a powerful home win which
will fuel that time-honoured English
emotion, premature optimism. There
is still more than a month before the
tournament kicks off , as both coaches
were quick to stress afterwards.
That said, there was sufficient
strength and energy on display from
Eddie Jones’s players to send them Eddie Jones
during intense
discussions with
his England
coaching team
at Twickenham
TOM JENKINS/
THE GUARDIANToday
World Cup squad announced
Saturday
v Wales Cardiff , 2.15pm
Saturday 24 Aug
v Ireland Twickenham, 3pm
Friday 6 Sept
v Italy Newcastle, 7.45pm
World Cup
Sunday 22 Sept
v Tonga Sapporo, 11.15am^England’s key dates
Eddie Jones
England head coach‘It was ridiculous.
We can’t have that
in the game ... We
need to have some
consistency and
common sense’
get some consistency into that area
of the game. In the World Cup if you
lose a player through a red card as
New Zealand did , it makes the game
very diffi cult. I thought we saw two
instances today where that could
have happened. I urge World Rugby,
although I don’t think they do anything
at great pace, to get some con sistency
in that area because otherwise we will
have games being destroyed by an
inconsistent offi cial making a decision
on a law that’s not clear.”
The referee during the Bledisloe
Cup match, Jérôme Garcès, showed
Barrett a red card in accordance with aEngland coach in broadside
over red cards on the eve of
disclosing fi nal 31-man squadРЕЛИЗ ПОДГОТОВИЛА ГРУППА "What's News" VK.COM/WSNWS