Marching orders: Darcy Swain was sent off following a first-half clash with Jonny Hill
(Picture: AP)Eddie Jones believes Australia were helped by the referee following their red card in the first Test win over England.
Brumbies lock Darcy Swain was dismissed in the first half of Saturday’s remarkable 30-28 comeback victory for the Wallabies at Perth’s Optus Stadium, having planted a headbutt on Jonny Hill during an ugly exchange between the respective second rows.
Sale’s Hill was shown a yellow card for his part in the flashpoint, for hair pulling.
But Australia were not to be deterred by that considerable setback and injuries to the likes of Quade Cooper, Tom Banks and Allan Alaalatoa, going in level at the interval and taking the lead early in the second half before mounting an incredible fightback after Ellis Genge’s try and the boot of Owen Farrell had restored and extended the English advantage to 14-9 with 20 minutes left to play.
Dave Rennie’s side notched three scores through Jordan Petaia, Folau Fainga’a and Pete Samu, the latter two of which came with the numbers even at 14 players a side after Billy Vunipola was sent to the sin bin for high contact in the tackle.
England managed two last-gasp tries through debutants Henry Arundell and Jack van Poortvliet, but it wasn’t enough as they crashed to a fourth straight loss and saw their miserable run in 2022 continue.
It was also the second time in a matter of weeks that Jones’ side have been bested by a team playing for most of the game with 14 men. The same also occurred at Twickenham last month, when a team missing the Premiership finalists from Saracens and Leicester were embarrassed in a 52-21 defeat by a Barbarians outfit that saw Australian lock Will Skelton sent off for a dangerous tackle before half-time.
And Jones believes New Zealand referee James Doleman looked to even things up for the Wallabies after Swain’s dismissal.
"You look at the history of the game, whenever you get a red card the referee evens it up. He helps the team with the red card," Jones said.
"It's social reciprocity, it happens, that's normal and we've got to be good enough to handle it.
"That happens in every game of rugby I've seen. The team gets a red card and the opposition gets evened up. Because they're nice blokes, referees.
"I'm not criticising the referees, I'm not using it as an excuse, that's the reality of rugby.
"I'll say it again. I think when you play against 14 men the referee has a significant impact on the game and you've got to be good enough to understand what that is.
"We weren't good enough to understand what that is and therefore we paid the price."
Jones heaped praise on London Irish starlet Arundell - labelled as an ‘apprentice player’ for this tour who wasn’t expected to be capped - and Leicester scrum-half Van Poortvliet, but took responsibility for England’s dismal run of form that has seen growing disillusionment with his leadership after another disappointing Six Nations campaign in which they won only two of five games for the second successive year.
England have two more Tests to come on consecutive Saturdays in Brisbane and Sydney to try and save the three-match series, before fixtures against Argentina, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa in the autumn. Jones will be desperate to regather some momentum before next year’s World Cup in France, after which he is expected to depart his role.
“I’m disappointed that we’ve lost. The results aren’t good enough. I accept that and that’s my responsibility,” Jones said. “We’ll work hard to turn it around. We’ve got a committed group of players, a committed coaching group.
“We started the game well. We put ourselves in a position to win the game but we just weren’t quite good enough on the day to do that.”
