“It was a complete accident” – Eddie Jones decides to weigh in on All Blacks red card

"Unfortunately, he has to go."

South African referee Jaco Peyper was almost apologetic as he told All Blacks captain Sam Cane that his teammate, Angus Ta'avao had to go. Watching from Brisbane, Eddie Jones made note of the incident. The England head coach was getting his team ready to play the Second Test against Australia but he must have had one eye on events further south, at Forsyth Barr Stadium. Like the rest of us that were following New Zealand vs. Ireland, he would have witnessed the chaos caused by three yellow cards and a red being shown by Peyper in the first 40 minutes. Leicester Fainga'anuku and Ofa Tu'ungafasi were both yellow-carded, for the hosts, and Ireland's James Ryan was sent to the sin-bin, too. With Tu'ungafasi in the cooler for denying Garry Ringrose a clear try with an off-the-ball tackle, replacement tighthead Angus Ta'avao was sent off for going in too upright and colliding heads with the Leinster centre. https://twitter.com/SkySportsRugby/status/1545677779617939456

"The game’s gone out of control" - Eddie Jones

Jaco Peyper initially said, "It looks like an accident," but replays should that was not the case and the hosts were down to just 14 men [13 for a short period as a player was still in the sin-bin] for the remaining 50 minutes. When the 10 minutes in the sin-bin for Ofa Tu'ungafasi were up, both he, Ardie Savea and Dalton Papalii all came on to the pitch, with Aidan Ross going off. Still, that leaved the All Blacks with 15 men on the pitch. They were told Savea would have to leave the fray, after a hold-up of two minutes. An hour after full-time in Dunedin, England took on Australia. While it was not quite as card-heavy, there were yellows, after TMO reviews, for Australia's Izaia Perese and Marcus Smith of England. Both were for what the officials deemed to be deliberate knock-ons, scuppering attacks from the opposition.

"The game’s gone out of control," Eddie Jones told reporters, after his side had defeated the Wallabies.

"We saw the New Zealand-Ireland Test - at one stage the commentators couldn’t count how many players were on the field. Seriously. And they had three backs packing the scrum.

“We’ve gone the full hog, where everything is a yellow card, everything is a red card. There needs to be some common sense come back into the game."

Jones was a supporter of the 20-minute red card trial, which was used in Super Rugby this year. The cards would be shown for dangerous play that was more about poor body position or tackle technique, rather than anything malicious, pre-meditated or violent, which would still merit a full red card. While many in the southern hemisphere were in favour of extending the 20-minute red card into Test rugby, and other competitions, World Rugby opted against it. Referring specifically to the cards in the All Blacks game, Eddie Jones added:

"That’s a more common sensical approach. The All Blacks prop, he got more injured than the ball carrier, there was nothing intentional about him, it was a complete accident. He’s 135kg ... and he got beaten by a change of direction and his head hit [Ringrose's] head."

"To lose a player for that sort of incident," added Jones, "I don’t think is in the spirit of the game."

---