Eddie Jones dismisses impact of referee’s influence in England’s win over Wales

Eddie Jones insisted any preferential treatment from referee Mike Adamson in their 23-19 Guinness Six Nations victory over Wales evened the score after events in Cardiff a year earlier.

Wales boss Wayne Pivac questioned whether Alex Dombrandt’s second-half try that propelled his side into a 17-0 lead at Twickenham should have stood because of an line-out infringement.

But Jones referenced England conceding two hotly-disputed tries at the Principality Stadium in the 2021 tournament when explaining why he felt no sympathy for the champions.

“I don’t comment on the referee. We take the good with the bad,” the head coach said.

“We took 14 points last year in a Six Nations game where they allowed a play where the ball wasn’t alive and then a blatant knock-on.

“There’s the rub of the green. Sometimes you get it and sometimes you don’t. So if we got it today (Saturday), that’s well and good.

“We’re not going to complain about it, just as we didn’t complain last year when we didn’t get the rub of the green.”

England were forced to weather two fightbacks from Wales in a roller-coaster second half, winning from a position where they have frequently fallen apart in the past.

Man of the match Marcus Smith landed six penalties and Jones was delighted with the resilience shown in a victory that propels them back into title contention.

“That was a very good win for us. Plenty of resilience, plenty of toughness,” Jones said.

“We put ourselves in a good wining position in the first 50 minutes, then had a period there for 10, 15, 20 minutes where we were a bit untidy in defence and let them back in the game, but for a young team there were some good signs out there.

“We got ourselves in a lot of good attacking positions and we were able to convert that to points.

“But for a young team we need to find a way to be more ruthless once we get in the opposition’s 22.”

Ben Youngs stepped off the bench to become England’s most capped men’s player, his 115th appearance eclipsing the record set by Jason Leonard.

“It’s a great tribute to his work-ethic, to his resilience, to his toughness,” Jones said.

“The thing I like about Ben is that he’s matured into a great team man. He always wants to be the starting half-back but he’s accepted for this game that he’s a finisher and he came on and did his job brilliantly. We’re so lucky to have a guy like him.”

Jones revealed that Tom Curry left the field with concussion and Luke Cowan-Dickie is likely to miss the last two rounds because of a knee injury.