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Jones blindsided by the revelation he was named at Erasmus hearing
Eddie Jones is a coach very rarely stuck for words but the England boss was blindsided by the revelation that his name featured in the sanctioning section of the written judgment published after Rassie Erasmus was banned from rugby this week.
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Springboks director Erasmus was suspended from all rugby with immediate effect on Wednesday for a period of two months following his misconduct hearing regarding charges arising out of the Test series versus the British and Irish Lions earlier this year.
Erasmus was also banned from any involvement on a matchday until September 30 next year, while SA Rugby must pay a fine of £20,000. Both Erasmus and SA Rugby must also apologise for their actions, but both those parties have since stated they will be exercising their right to appeal.
In the 80-page written judgment detailing how the entire case was handled from the July 24 Test match in Cape Town all the way through to the decision to suspend Erasmus, the name of England boss Jones cropped up on page 40 of the document, something that was news to the Australian when it was mentioned to him at his team announcement media briefing on Thursday.
Falling under a section headed regulatory powers, guidance and principles, the judicial committee noted that they had been provided with plenty of examples of sanctioning in cases involving a coach or director of rugby directly threatening a match official. First in the list of seven cases referenced was the 2007 disciplinary hearing taken against Jones by Sanzar.
The written judgment in the Rassie Erasmus hearing has detailed a disputed phone call between two of World Rugby's top referees #Springboks #rassieerasmus
https://t.co/uu9ATEVh3I— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) November 18, 2021
The listing read: “Jones, then coach of Queensland Reds, admitted misconduct arising out of his media comments which included the following observations: ‘Referee decided to referee the scrums a different way which I thought was absolutely outrageous’, ‘Just can’t have that in professional rugby, but unfortunately that is the case’, ‘Referee decide he was going to square up in the second half – gave them, I think, four penalties in a row’ and ‘How much is the fine? I’ll have to check with my accountant… whatever the fine, I’ll pay twice. I thought it (the refereeing) was outrageous’. He was fined and ordered to apologise.”
Asked for his thoughts at his name getting mentioned in the sanctioning section at the Erasmus hearing, England boss Jones said: “I have got no idea what you are talking about, mate.”
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When it was explained to him it had something to do with an incident in 2007 regarding comments he made about scrums, he added: “I really don’t know what you are talking about, mate. I can remember getting fined in 2007 and I paid the price for not showing the respect I should have shown and I have learned from that. I made a mistake and I learned from that. I haven’t encroached on that area again and that is all I can say, mate. I don’t know what you want me to say.”
Ironically, one of the other six cases referenced by the Erasmus judicial committee involved Richard Cockerill, the new England assistant, when he was coach of Leicester in 2009. It stated: “He entered the technical area and threatened ‘this bloke is f***ing s**t’, ‘you are all a bunch of useless c***s’ and ‘I’m going to slag this c**t off to every f***ing newspaper going, you watch me’. He admitted both charges and was suspended from match-day coaching for four weeks. The suspension from matchday contact (direct and indirect) with his team and match officials was on matchdays.”
Getting hit in the pocket was a concern of Rassie Erasmus during his sanction hearing#Springboks #rassieerasmus
https://t.co/eUAD3LBGtp— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) November 18, 2021
Comments on RugbyPass
Je suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
25 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
25 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
25 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
25 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
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