Jones stokes the flames ahead of clash

– England coach Eddie Jones says he has complained to World Rugby about the conduct of Wales captain Alun Wyn Jones (above) before the two teams meet in the Six Nations at Twickenham today.

Jones objected to an incident late in the Six Nations opener between Wales and Scotland in Cardiff last Saturday where his namesake stood in front of Finn Russell, to prevent the Scotland flyhalf from converting Peter Horne’s late try, while the television match official reviewed the score.

Russell was aware there might have been an infringement so rushed to take the conversion,

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only for the Wales lock to effectively block the kick as he strode towards referee Pascal Gauzere.

The England coach accused the Wales captain of failing to “respect the integrity of the referee”.

“I thought that was right out of order. When he tried to stop the referee from allowing the kick at goal – we can’t have that in the game,” he said.

“That’s borrowed from another sport and I really hope World Rugby doesn’t allow that to creep into the game because it shouldn’t be part of the game.

“All we say is just to be respectful. At times players lose their cool, but that was a contrived bit of behaviour,” said Jones.

“It’s not great for the game and I’ve said something to World Rugby about it, I feel that strongly.

“We’ve got to respect the integrity of the referee in the game because we’ve got one of the most difficult games to referee.

“It doesn’t get any easier. There’s more density around the ball. The players are bigger, faster and stronger. There’s quicker decisions from the referee to make.”

Both England and Wales made winning starts last weekend to their respective Six Nations campaigns.

In other matches, Ireland host Italy in Dublin today and France travel to Edinburgh to take on Scotland tomorrow. – Reuters