the times | Wednesday December 2 2020 2GM 63
Sport
Jones’s side face France in
autumn finale on Sundayensuring the first arriving player in
attack stays on his feet and it is making
sure the assist tackler gives a clear
release, which is something that hasn’t
been happening at all,” he said.
It was happening. When Super
Rugby Aotearoa returned in New Zea-
land after lockdown the referees were
very strict in dealing with offside and
breakdown offences, which led to 58
penalties in the first two matches.
Since then there has been a
gradual softening in approach.
“The referees went very hard
and they were roundly criti-
cised,” Jones said. “It seems
people want to have it both
ways — they don’t want the
referee to referee the laws,
then when we get slow ball
they criticise the game.”
Despite acknowledg-
ing rugby was stuck in a
rut, Jones said it was
“massively alarmist” toJones: Game is in a rut –
referees must speed it up
innings from Jordan. Eighty-four came
from the last five overs. The signals the
England analyst had been putting up
from the dressing room for Eoin
Morgan, the captain, did not appear
much help as the boundaries flowed,
but that was put into perspective later
by England’s batting.
The South Africans’ unbeaten
partnership was worth 127, with Van der
Dussen ending on a career-best 74 from
32 balls. It was good, but nowhere near
good enough on the night, not against
this magnificent England side.signals to Morgan
Van der Dussen greeted Archer’s first
two balls of the next over with a six and
a four, the latter cutting Ben Stokes’s
left hand as he hit an advertising board,
forcing him to leave the field.
The next ball went for four too and
two balls later came another six. Van
der Dussen passed fifty off only 23 balls
as the over went for 22 and Archer’s
four overs had gone wicketless for 44.
Du Plessis was past his fifty off 37
balls by the end of the 19th over, and
then Van der Dussen took 20, including
two sixes, from the last over of the
are being fed, no matter the
complexity of the system used. Last
night those players were Malan,
again, and Buttler, who in a brutal
and savage partnership simply took
South Africa’s bowlers to the cleaners.
And to think that Malan cannot get
in England’s 50-over squad. Instead,
off he goes to the Big Bash in
Brisbane to further his education.
What a chastening night this was
for South Africa and their captain,
Quinton de Kock. Throughout the
series, De Kock has looked slightly
overwhelmed by the multifaceted
nature of the job. Captaining in
the rush hour of T20 is not
straightforward in any case, added to
the complications of being a wicket-
keeper-captain, with a hundred things
on his mind at any given point in
time. In the early stages of his
innings, Malan was short of his
ground from a bullet throw from
Temba Bavuma, De Kock fluffed the
ball and the chance went begging. It
was the only one Malan offered.
Last night De Kock had to do
without Kagiso Rabada, his best
bowler, who has pulled a leg muscle
and will miss the ODI series, a
terrible and cruel blow. In his place
came the inexperienced 22-year-old
Lutho Sipamla, whose first two overs
spilt 32 runs. There was a message
there, too, about just how tough T20
cricket is for a young bowler facing
this England one-day batting unit.
No manner of analytics will change
that brutal and enduring truth.Eddie Jones has called on World Rugby
to release the sport from tactical
gridlock by instructing referees to
enforce the breakdown laws properly
and free up teams to start attacking
with pace and ambition.
The England head coach conceded
the Autumn Nations Cup had been “a
real game for the purists” because the
rugby has been dominated by teams
kicking the ball away and applying
pressure with their defence.
Dylan Hartley, the former England
captain, called it “boring”. Players from
all nations are growing increasingly
frustrated that it has become more
profitable to play without the ball.
Jones believes referees have the
power to trigger a new attacking cycle
— but only if they crack down on the
cynical tactics being used to kill the
game as a fast-paced spectacle.
“What’s the opposite of zero toler-
ance? That’s where it is at the moment
and we have to cope with that,” Jones
said, in a riposte to those who have
pinned the blame on conservative
coaching. “We try to play as well as we
can under those conditions.
“I’ve always been an advocate of the
referee being there to enforce the laws
of the game and if we have a high
penalty count then so be it. The bonus
of having a high penalty count is that
you’re able to get quick ball.
“Every side in the world now is so
much better organised in defence.
Space is at a premium and unless
we are able to get quick ball it’s
very difficult to play with
any fluency.”
In the lead-up to
England’s Autumn
Nations Cup final
against France on
Sunday, Jones high-
lighted three key issues
that referees have been
failing to police, contribut-
ing to an imbalance between
attack and defence. “It is the
tackler rolling away, it issuggest that potential new supporters
were being turned away from the sport.
“The game is cyclical,” he said.
“Looking at rugby at the moment it’s
certainly a tough, physical game, a real
game for the purists. The next cycle is
always an attacking one. When that
happens is dependent on the laws.”
Jones is not railing against the
authorities. He wants to be part of the
solution, having agreed to join World
Rugby’s high performance committee.
Joe Schmidt, the former Ireland head
coach, was recently appointed high
performance manager.
“Joe is a fine rugby man with a good
knowledge of the game and I think it
gives a good balance,” Jones said.
“Our game is so contingent on the
referees and players working together
as we have a complex, contestable
game. That is the joy of our game.
The pressure on the referee to referee
all those complex contests is getting
more difficult.”
One of the issues this autumn has
been the inability for referees to work
closely together.
“We would all be hopeful, post-coro-
navirus, that we get clarity of the laws,”
Jones said. “There is no coincidence
that the 2015 and 2019 World Cups
produced good rugby. The referees
were together and refereeing the same
interpretations. There was a consisten-
cy in the application of the law.”
Looking longer term, Jones will
lobby the committee to introduce more
fatigue into the game to create a more
consistent balance between attack and
defence, so there are fewer stoppages
and fewer replacements.
“We have got Steve Price [in camp],
the Warrington Wolves coach. In Super
League their ball in play [time] is 68
minutes, which is twice what it is in
Test-match rugby,” Jones said.
“We are creating shorter periods of
play and longer periods of rest and that
does not produce any fatiguing effect in
the game. If the ball in play is longer
they are going to get fatigued and that
means there is going to be more space.
That’s one way of getting a better
balance in the game.”Rugby union
Alex Lowe Deputy Rugby CorrespondentMatera stripped of captaincy
Pablo Matera has been stripped of
the Argentina captaincy and
suspended, along with two team-
mates, after racist posts he had
made on social media were
uncovered. Matera, 27, who led the
Pumas to their first victory over
New Zealand last month, has
apologised for the posts from
between 2011 and 2013.
The Argentina Rugby Union has
suspended Matera, along with Guido
Petti and Santiago Socino, throwing
the team’s preparations for the
game against Australia on Saturday
into disarray. “I am very ashamed,”
Matera said. “Sorry to all those who
were offended by the barbarities
that I wrote.”
One of Matera’s tweets said: “Nice
morning to go out in the car and run
over blacks.”Russell may replace Covid-hit Hamilton
driver said that he hoped to be back for
the season closer in Abu Dhabi a week
on Sunday, although Guenther Steiner,
the Haas team principal, said they
would review that next week.
Speaking to French TV, Grosjean
revealed that it took him three attempts
to get out of the wreckage of his car and
as he sat amid the flames his mind
turned to Niki Lauda, the triple world
champion, who suffered severe burns
during a crash at the Nürburgring, in
Germany, in 1976.
Grosjean, who described his second-
degree burns to both hands as “superfi-
cial”, said he was fully conscious
throughout and had been determined
not to suffer more serious injuries for
the sake of his children and parents.
“I saw my visor all orange, the flames
around me, and the accident of Niki
Lauda came to mind,” he said. “I didn’t
want to end up like that. I had to get out,
for my children.
“In the end, my hands were burnt,
while I thought I had broken my foot. I
was more afraid for my relatives, my
children in the first place, but also my
father and my mother.”He said that the crash was unlike
anything he’d seen, even in a film.
“Even in Hollywood, it does not exist,”
he said. “I have never seen a crash like
that in my life.”
Grosjean, who is due to be released
from hospital today, will be replaced
this weekend by the 24-year-old Haas
reserve driver Pietro Fittipaldi, the
grandson of the double F1 world
champion Emerson Fittipaldi.
The FIA, the sport’s governing body,
has launched an investigation into the
accident, which had several safety
failings, including how it was possible
for the car to penetrate the barrier and
for the fuel tank to become exposed,
causing the fire.
Meanwhile, Hamilton could miss the
rest of the season after testing positive
for Covid-19, and may be replaced by
compatriot George Russell.
The 35-year-old said he was “gutted”
to be ruled out of the Sakhir Grand Prix
in Bahrain this weekend. It is the first
time that he will miss a race since his
Formula One career began in 2007.
It is understood that Mercedes are
talking to Williams about Russell, 22,
replacing Hamilton. The Englishman is
part of the Mercedes young driverprogramme and the team placed him at
Williams, whose engines they supply,
to allow him to gain experience within
Formula One.
Hamilton now has to isolate for ten
days in Bahrain and could also miss the
final race in Abu Dhabi, which has strict
entry requirements due to coronavirus.
Formula One has put protocols in
place to prevent the spread of the virus,
which include being tested before entry
into the paddock, another test within 24
hours of entering the paddock and a
third test on Sunday, the race day.
Hamilton said he tested negative
three times last week, including on
Sunday, but awoke on Monday with
“mild symptoms” and requested a test,
which returned a positive result. A
second test also came back positive.
“I’m gutted not to be able to race this
weekend but my priority is to follow the
protocols and advice to protect others,”
he said. “I’m really lucky that I feel OK
with only mild symptoms and will do
my best to stay fit and healthy.”
Mercedes said Hamilton was told on
Monday that someone he came into
contact with before travelling to
Bahrain last week had since tested
positive for the virus.continued from back
RODGER BOSCH/AFP/GETTY IMAGESchased 191 with ease. Below left, Stokes injured a hand in the fielding effort