Eddie Jones trains England on reacting better to suspect refereeing decisions
Eddie Jones has been drilling England on how to react to dodgy refereeing decisions as they seek to exorcise their discipline demons against France on Saturday. In an effort to improve his side’s ability to think on their feet and avoid the red mist against LesBleus, Jones has been putting his players under the pump by rehearsing a number of “unfair” match scenarios – including bad calls from officials – in training.
Jones, who has handed a first Test start to Max Malins with Elliot Daly dropping to the bench, has sought to address England’s high penalty count by bringing the referees Wayne Barnes and Matt Carley into training this week as he looks to avoid a third defeat in four Six Nations matches. On Thursday Jones also revealed how he has been stress-testing his players in a move that echoes Sir Clive Woodward’s “T-Cup” mantra of Thinking Correctly Under Pressure.
England came unstuck against Wales last time out by conceding penalties in costly clusters, on top of two controversial tries, which the referee Pascal Gaüzère has since admitted he should have disallowed. For the first of those, Gaüzère instructed Owen Farrell to address his teammates about their penalty count, only for Dan Biggar to kick a penalty across the field for
Josh Adams to score. Farrell was incensed but Gaüzère gave his protestations short shrift and the England captain was unable to improve his side’s discipline thereafter.
Jones has admitted his players had been “trying too hard” when giving away needless penalties and wants them to improve on how they deal with their disappointment during the match. Citing France’s knack of forcing their opponents to infringe, Jones said: “We have tried to create training sessions this week particularly to replicate what might be termed as a disappointment in the game to make sure that we don’t lose our focus. Because what happens when you are not at your best is when you get those disappointing moments in the game, all other ideas start flooding into your head instead of just getting back to what is really important.
“So particularly this week we have tried to create sessions that have elicited that response and again just tried to expose the players so they can practise that a bit more. [It is] game scenarios … a bad call by the referee, unfair conditions in the game … we have concentrated on a number of areas to put the players under pressure. There are going to be moments in the game when they are going to be tested like that.”
Farrell’s leadership has come under increased scrutiny throughout the tournament and his reaction to Wales’s first try only added to the suspicion his communication with referees needs improvement. Accordingly, Farrell has been picking the brains of Carley this week. “I spoke to Matt for a bit about it,” he said. “But there’s not too much you can do by way of getting that reversed. You never really change a referee’s decision. You try to have a dialogue to understand things and see how you can do things better, but we’re not really a part of the decision. I don’t think I dwell on [the scrutiny]. You soon come to realise what’s important and how you learn from things and take them going forward.”
Meanwhile, France’s head coach Fabien Galthié has accepted the criticism coming his side’s way after a Covid-19 outbreak in the camp led to their last match against Scotland being postponed, but insisted “zero risk does not exist”. Following an investigation it emerged Galthié left the squad’s bubble on the opening weekend to watch his son play rugby, while players also went out to eat waffles when in Rome to play Italy, but France have been cleared of any wrongdoing. “I repeat it, all my actions, all our actions, were in compliance with the sanitary protocol, he said. The protocols protect well or even very well, but zero risk does not exist.”