Eddie Jones has blasted the decision to send off Springbok lock Lood de Jager in Paris.
De Jager received a permanent red card just before half time for a high tackle on France fullback Thomas Ramos, who was falling after a tackle by Cobus Reinach – and a four-match ban.
Referee Angus Gardner ruled that De Jager’s shoulder-to-head contact was “always illegal”, leaving no room for mitigation – a decision that Jones believes showed no feel for the game.
“The guy’s 6ft 8, and when he hit him, he must have been maybe three, three-and-a-half feet above the ground,” the Japan head coach said on the Rugby Unity podcast. “I know there’s head contact, and we have to worry about safety, but I just can’t see how that’s a red card. He’s trying to do everything right. Everything right. It spoils the game.”
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Jones insisted that De Jager was not reckless and that the collision was clearly accidental.
“He’s trying to make a tackle with a bloke who is ducking – that’s not careless,” he said. “There are very few careless acts in the game now. There are a lot of accidental head contacts, and that was one of them. Why would he try to ram his head into another player’s head? That’s just ridiculous.”
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Jones added that referees should interpret the laws with common sense rather than “just ticking boxes”.
“They have to interpret the laws,” he said. “I thought it was a ridiculous refereeing decision, and it spoiled the game.”
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Photo: David Rogers/Getty Images
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