Monday 27 February 2017

Eddie Jones Wants World Rugby To Revise Breakdown Laws After England’s Winning Match Over Italy

Eddie Jones

Eddie Jones has called for World Rugby to take action and revise breakdown laws following England's 36-15 win over Italy in the Six Nations.

The Azzurri refused to commit any players after a tackle had been made at Twickenham on Sunday, thereby preventing any rucks from forming and allowing the visitors to stray offside.

England struggled to adjust to tactics that have been used sporadically in other matches but never for an entire game and Jones expects the sport's global governing body to intervene.

<>"World Rugby are in charge of the shape of the game and I'm sure [chairman] Bill Beaumont will have watched this match and will take some action," Jones said.

"Of course it can be solved. It can be easily solved. I could solve it like that [clicks fingers].

"All you need is a tackle offside line. As soon as you make a tackle, there's an offside line."

Eddie Jones

George Ford repeated Jones' call for World Rugby to act, fearing the damage inflicted on the sport if the laws continue to be exploited in this way.

"I hope it will get addressed before we play Scotland because if teams do that it is going to kill the game quickly. There's no rugby going to be played," Ford said.

"I don't think that sort of stuff happening is good for the game. You could see the frustration of the players, fans and coaches. It's just not what the game should be like."

Jones admitted he had considered using similar tactics when he was Japan coach, but abandoned the idea believing it was against the spirit of the game.

"I've never seen a referee lose his perspective of the game. That's the reality of it," Jones said.

"The whole game became a joke. Our halfback goes to pass the ball and [Edoardo] Gori's there. The whole time he was standing there. Our players were definitely shocked. You go to pass the ball and all you see is a blue jumper.

"We teach the players to look to pass the ball and when you can't pass the ball then it becomes a different game.

"It is a contest game. We have rucks to have a contest, we have scrums to have a contest. We have line-outs to have a contest game. When you take contests out of the game it ceases to be rugby."


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