‘Games being destroyed’: Eddie Jones’s red card World Cup warning

The fallout of from the red card controversy that left a mark on Australia’s victory over New Zealand has made its way to the Northern Hemisphere, with England boss Eddie Jones issuing a blunt message to World Cup officials.

Scott Barrett is shown red. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

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Eddie Jones has warned that the World Cup could be ruined by a rogue red card as debate rages over whether the send-off rule is ill-equipped for modern officiating.

The England coach labelled as “ridiculous” the send-off of All Blacks lock Scott Barrett last weekend because of the inconsistency with which such rulings are applied.

Barrett’s cocked arm jolt to Wallaby Michael Hooper’s head became the turning point in Australia’s 47-26 win in Perth when the Kiwis played the second half with 14 men.

“We saw a red card which affected the game,” Jones (pictured) said.

“In the World Cup, if you lose a player through a red card as New Zealand did, it makes the game very difficult.

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Scott Barrett is shown red. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

“I urge World Rugby 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.”

He was speaking after England’s 33-19 win over Wales at Twickenham in London in a Cup warm-up early.

Jones said that if he’d applied the Barrett scenario he could have found two more red cards in his match.

Player safety and protecting the head are paramount but it still puts the onus on referees to police every no-arms jolt with the shoulder with consistency.

Former Wallaby Anthony Herbert said the send-off process had to be changed after also being exasperated by three yellow cards in the club preliminary final at Ballymore on Sunday.

The incident has caused concern ahead of the World Cup. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

“If you send someone off (for anything less than blatant foul play), I think it’s reached the point where he’s out of the game for 10 minutes and has to be replaced at that point,” he said. “The judiciary can review with full force after a Test if it’s a bad one.

“You’ll have fans paying thousands of dollars to fly to the World Cup and they deserve better than to see a game, four years in the making, ruined with teams playing a man down. I didn’t see a red card in the Barrett case, but that’s me.”

Matt Cockbain, a 1999 World Cup-winner, said that the excellence of the Aussie pack in Perth showed that you could win playing aggressively without going beyond the laws.

“It was great to see the Wallabies aim up,” Cockbain said while watching the team train in Melbourne.

Eddie Jones fears officials could ruin the World Cup. Picture: Adrian Dennis/AFP

“In my opinion, the referee (Jerome Garces) had no option. Barrett didn’t deliberately aim there but he caught Hooper’s head and a red card was fair penalty.

“They are the laws today and players will have to be extremely careful at the World Cup to wrap the arms (or be punished for shoulder charges).”

The GPS-Uni preliminary final exposed another flawed area of the laws when Jeeps lost two players to the sin bin and three props were injured.

Under the rules, GPS had to forfeit another player, hooker Troy Simkin, and play with only 12 men because they were forced to go to uncontested scrums.

Coach Elwee Prinsloo labelled it a “shemozzle”.

“That law would have been designed for two scrums being at a full complement to prevent foxing not if there was an advantage in numbers already,” Herbert said.

“You’d want to tighten up that rule for sure.”