Jones jibes back at ‘Uncle Eddie’
Wales captain ‘thanks’ coach for disrepute claim Hartley reveals his tactics for speaking to officials
Alun Wyn Jones, the Wales captain, shrugged off accusations from the England head coach, Eddie Jones, that he had brought the game into disrepute when challenging referee Pascal Gauzere last weekend – although there was a sardonic tone from the Ospreys lock when he thanked “Uncle Eddie” for raising the important issue.
Jones v Jones might never reach the dramatic legal heights of
Kramer versus Kramer but the player’s beautifully toned response to the invective of Jones, part tongue in cheek, part turning of the cheek, indicated that the verbal barbs had had little overt impact on the Welsh camp.
Warren Gatland, the Wales head coach, chuckled on seeing the media throng as he wandered through the team hotel in Weybridge. If the game itself is anything like as nuanced then the Twickenham crowd are in for a treat.
“We’re very grateful that he [Eddie] flagged that up the fact that you can be overzealous and sometimes appear to go outside the spirit of the game,” said Alun Wyn Jones. “You need to have that element of protection for the game and for the official and Eddie was probably doing just that, due diligence from him.”
Jones has taken exception to the Wales captain approaching Gauzere after Scotland scored their try in the 78th minute of their 34-7 defeat.
There was an element of uncertainty in the legality of the score, which needed to be checked with the television match official, before Finn Russell had the chance to take the conversion, which would have rendered any objection redundant. At one point Jones blocked Russell’s run-up. The England head coach contacted World Rugby over the matter, although no formal complaint was ever lodged, and called the lock “out of order”, for his “intimidation” of Gauzere.
World Rugby has clarified that there was nothing illegal or questionable in the sequence of events. Again, the player dismissed the notion that he might be upset by the England coach saying he was “out of order”. “No, not at all,” said Jones. “My parents have been saying that for many years and I am married now, so it is just like being at home.
“It’s the sort of thing that you can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family. I’ll have to have a chat with uncle Eddie after the game. I don’t know if there is an element of deflection in all this. It’s stuff that goes on outside the tent.
“As players, we’re inside the tent and we need to deal with what goes on inside the white lines. Most importantly, Pascal had no issue at the time or after the game. It is pleasing that World Rugby clarified that nothing untoward happened.
“I hadn’t seen the signal of the ref that he had gone to the TMO. It is important we get clarity. I’d like to think I wouldn’t be running up and charging down [conversions]. But I had to ask the question.”
He also accepted that fly-half Rhys Patchell should come under scrutiny although he did not fully accept Eddie Jones’s premise that the Scarlet lacked “bottle”.
“Well, we were sponsored by a brewery [Brains] for a long time so there has always been plenty of bottle in a Wales side,” the captain said. “There are obviously going to be questions round Rhys. In that position, you are always going to get attention. Rhys would probably like to have had a few more caps but he has been around the squad a long time. It is a step up, no one would deny that, but Patch is ready and will take it in his stride.”
Dylan Hartley, the England captain, has disclosed that he spends time weighing up just when to question referees.
“You have got to pick your moments,” he said. “I think about it a lot. I think about my body language, how I gesture towards the ref, how I approach and when I approach. The best games are when you don’t have to talk to them at all.”