England head coach Eddie Jones has said he thought the red card shown to New Zealand’s Scott Barrett against Australia on Saturday was “ridiculous”, urging World Rugby to address their high-tackle law ahead of the Rugby World Cup in September.
Speaking after England’s 33-19 win over Wales on Sunday, Jones said referees are implementing the high-tackle law inconsistently, referring to two separate incidents from the match at Twickenham which could have resulted in red cards.
On Saturday Barrett was sent off by French referee Jerome Garces after he made contact with the head of Australia captain Michael Hooper with his shoulder. Wales’ Aled Davies and Ross Moriarty escaped further punishment after they were involved in similar incidents on Sunday, with referee Mathieu Raynal only awarding penalties for the offences.
“I thought there was an issue with the referee,” Jones said, after having been asked a question about the performance of England debutant Willi Heinz.
“We saw a red card yesterday which affected the game. We need to 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 yesterday, it makes the game very difficult.
“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 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.”
When asked a further question on Barrett’s red card, Jones said: “I thought it was ridiculous. A bloke gets tackled, (Barrett) goes to be second man in and his shoulder hits his [Hooper’s] head and he gets a red card. We can’t have that in the game.
“There has to be some common sense applied but maybe common sense was applied today really well. But what I’m saying is that we need to have some consistency and common sense. I think it’s really important for the game.”
Jones names his 31-man England squad for the World Cup on Monday.