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Eddie Jones takes a 'might come in a laundry box' swipe at Erasmus

By PA
(Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

England head coach Eddie Jones has insisted that referees must be treated with respect as he once again prepares to face a South Africa team that will be without Rassie Erasmus at Twickenham. Instead of working this Saturday, the Springboks director of rugby will complete a two-game match day ban incurred for publishing a series of sarcastic tweets criticising officials during the Autumn Nations Series.

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Wayne Barnes, who oversaw South Africa’s defeat by France on November 12, received abuse on social media as a result of Erasmus’ comments. The mastermind of the Springboks’ 2019 World Cup triumph has only just returned from a year-long suspension for releasing a one-hour video critiquing Australian referee Nic Berry during last year’s Lions tour.

“Rassie might come in a laundry box! That’s been done before, hasn’t it? Usually by the Tottenham manager! I’m sure he will get in there somehow,” Jones said about the latest Erasmus match day absence. “The only thing I’d say is that we have to respect the referees and look after the referees. They are an important part of our game. What has happened, happened,” Jones said.

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The Jones comments on Erasmus came on Thursday at a media briefing after he dropped his two vice-captains Ellis Genge and Jack Nowell as part of four changes to the starting XV that secured a dramatic late draw with New Zealand. Genge is the victim of a revamped front row that sees recalls for prop Mako Vunipola and hooker Jamie George and the Bristol loosehead must settle for a place on the bench, where he is joined by Luke Cowan-Dickie.

Alex Coles replaces Sam Simmonds at blindside flanker, providing England with the third lineout option Jones believes is necessary against South Africa, to complete the adjustments to the pack. In the only change to the backs, Tommy Freeman comes in for Nowell in his first appearance since emerging as a hit on the July tour to Australia.

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“We were pleased with Jack last weekend but we feel that Tommy Freeman is coming into some form. He has got good pace and he will add something to the team,” Jones said. “We have been really pleased by Alex’s progress. He is someone who wasn’t in our immediate picture when we started the autumn, but because of injuries and other issues he has made his way into the squad, done really well and put himself in the reckoning for a World Cup spot.

“He is playing against some of the best players in the world. While he won’t be directly up against Eben Etzebeth, he will play against him and they are great learning opportunities.”

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Manu Tuilagi wins his 50th cap on Saturday,  eleven years after starting an international career that has been blighted by a series of significant injuries. “It’s been a difficult time for Manu. The pleasing thing for us is that for three weeks he has been involved in every training session,” Jones said.

“Yesterday [Wednesday] we did quite a tough session and he got through everything. We are really pleased about his progress – and the progress of the team. This is another opportunity for the team to step up. We started slowly in the first game of the autumn against Argentina and weren’t at our best but with each game, we have got a little bit better.”

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14 Comments
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Michael Röbbins (academic and writer extraordinair 847 days ago

Where’s the article on Ronan O’Gara’s suspension for 10 weeks for abusing refs? Oh, that’s right, since he’s the little poster boy for English and Irish rugby right now, just crickets…

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Carmen Beechum 1 hour ago
Mick Cleary: 'England are back among the heavyweights.'

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JW 2 hours ago
Five reasons why Super Rugby Pacific is enjoying it's best season in forever

The Mickey Mouse playoff system that made the entire regular season redundant

The playoff system has never been redundant Ben, it was merely important to fewer teams, just those vying for top seed. After that it was simply about qualifying.


The format is arguably worse now. I can see the Canes slumping to a point were the return of key components, like their starting midfield, is now going to happen too late for them due to the reduced playoff spots. So we don’t get the perfect jeopardy like what we got with the Crusaders last year, were deservedly (despite showing they easily had a top 4 team when fit) they missed out because they were even more pathetic than that early team deserved. A couple more bonus points with some better leadership, on and off field, would have given the Crusaders a deserving. As reported last year have we not seen a more perfect finals run in.


Objectively easier finals qualification is better suited to shorter competitions, and we know SR is the “sprint” version amongst it’s rugby equivalents. The Top 14 is probably the worst competition in this respect, with it’s length with a double round robin should have a football styled champion. The Premiership, with it’s smaller base but also double round robin, was pretty much perfectly suited to it’s smaller 4 team playoff. Super Rugby, with it’s much shorter season (smaller amount of games, and most importantly over a much shorter period, would be able suited to a 6 team play off series if it had a comparative round robin. It doesn’t. Playing a bunch of random extra games, within your own division, requires you to expand the qualification reach. Super Rugby was another perfectly balanced competition.


If you want to look subjectively, sure, there are a lot of cool facets of tighter qualification, they just aren’t sensible applicable to SR so you have to be a realist.


I’m pretty sure you yourself have authored articles showing you need to be in the top four come finals time to win Super Rugby.

Competition parity this year just seems to be part luck, but we’ll take it.

The closer parity is simply more about circumstance, I agree. The Lions tour has just as much to do with the consistency and early standards in Australian players performances, and random factors balancing the NZ sides. The predictable improvement of the “Pacific Powers” another key factor, but with the case of extra support like NZR help raise their profile, as in the “Ardie” factor, possibly able to happen a year sooner than it has.


Still, as I have highlighted on previous articles, I wouldn’t be surprised if these results were nearly as predictable as they were last year, and that it was just the fixture ‘creation’ by new management that has artificially created a bit more hype and unrealistic perception on the competitions ‘parity’, in these early stages.

Super Rugby Pacific has done the right thing and got rid of most TMO interventions that have plagued the game over the last few years and impacted one World Cup final.

I wouldn’t have minded if they just put their own spin on WR’s structure. While you don’t go on to describe what the two situations are that remain, one that I think could still have been of value keeping is for the ability for the TMO to rule live.


The fact that several of the WC’s TMO officials were overly zealous in their ability to over rule the onfield decision does not mean there wouldn’t have been value in a good southern hemisphere run contingent from simply adding value and support to the game ref. Take the case last weekend as the perfect example. While I don’t believe it would have been of any real benefit for the Highlanders to have had advantage at the death (the same sequence would have still played out), looking in isolation one can clearly tell that was a live situation where the ref said he was obstructed from making a call, and if the current rules would have allowed, the TMO, like us on TV, could easily have told him to play advantage for the infringement. In another situation that type of officiating could have made all the difference to the quality and accuracy of the outcome. Views of the comp would be a lot different if it was clearly as case that the Highlanders were robbed of a deserved victory.


All told, the game is obviously much better off for what changes have been made with officiating, though this is not really isolated to SR. SR is just the only comp to have start with these.

If you want back in, put your hands up for some real competition, don’t ask for handouts. No conference systems.

We are currently in a conference system Ben, I’m afraid you’re beating the wrong drum there and you own subjective (and flawed) opinions are coming through quite clearly. As spitballed on the article a few days ago, it’s hard to see a true league table where it is either a full round robin or double round robin happen, there is still going to be some amount of divisional derby matchs going on to fill out the season.


Conferences are also the only way forward, so get on board. I would love for SARU to be able to add a couple of regional sides in Super Rugby, using the countries burgeoning playerbase. It might be far easier, and more advantageous, for SA to add to SR than say try to enlarge the URC, or go it on their own with a professional scene. They could leave their clubs to themselves and take control of running a highveld team out of Cheetahs country, and a lowveld team wherever they would like a new attempt at a ‘Kings’ team. I can’t see the clubs ever rejoining SR.


Not surprised the article is well off the mark Ben.


One thing they could do to further improve the ‘jeopardy’ though is to have a separate world club table where each seasons finalists are awarding ranking points going towards selecting who takes part in the biennial (right?) world champs the Champions Cup is hosting in the future. I’d normally expect the government to simply send whoever the most recent finalists are but I reckon creating a way to have those instead be judged by contribution since the last edition (however frequent this idea might turn out) could be a winner this new management will work out and capitalize on. It would also help add to that jeopardy if say ranking points were only allocated to the top 6 of an 8 team finals format.

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LONG READ 'Ulster, though no one wants to admit it, isn't much more than a development province right now.' 'Ulster, though no one wants to admit it, isn't much more than a development province right now.'
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