England silent over blunder ref but call out trolls after social media abuse

Eddie Jones will not make a formal complaint to World Rugby over the two tries wrongly awarded to Wales.

England crashed to a 40-24 Six Nations defeat in Cardiff after being left furious by what World Cup winner Martin Johnson branded “appalling” refereeing.

French official Pascal Gauzere first allowed Josh Adams to score from a quickly taken penalty when he had just told Owen Farrell to speak to his team.

He then ignored a blatant knock-on by Louis Rees-Zammit to award a second try to Liam Williams – leading former Wales captain Sam Warburton to admit: “I’d be fuming if I was Owen Farrell”.

But Jones refused to criticise the official publicly after the game. And yesterday the RFU confirmed that England would not be taking the matter further.

The Australian simply said: “We were in a race and they got a bit of a headstart and we had to catch up.

“Sometimes you play rugby and don't get the result. Sometimes you play terrible rugby and do.”

Defeat ended England’s title defence and will prompt calls for change ahead of their next game against unbeaten France on Saturday week.

Jones added: “We have been through these periods before and everyone is going to have an opinion.

“Some might be right, but we just have to make sure we listen to what is important and the important thing is what goes on in the team.

“We know how hard we are working and we know what direction we are going in and we will get out of this.”

To add insult to injury Wales closed out the win through the boot of Callum Sheedy who played FOR England as recently as 2019.

The Bristol fly-half pulled on the white jersey in a non-cap win over the Barbarians at Twickenham but then decided to declare for the land of his birth.

“To even put the shirt on for Wales is an unbelievable achievement,” he said. “But to win a Triple Crown and beat England like that it’s definitely up there in terms of what I’ve achieved in my career.

“I hope the Welsh people enjoy this win, as they should. In tough testing times it’s great to get a win over England.”

England Rugby last night called out social media trolls after prop Ellis Genge claimed he was sent death threats.

The team’s official Twitter feed urged anyone seeing “any abusive or offensive posts” on the platform to report them.

And added in a statement: “Some of the reaction on social media to players and the team has not shown the level of respect the rugby community prides itself in.

“We will support our players and team against online abuse and hope true rugby fans will stand with us.”

Source: Read Full Article