Jeff Probyn: Eddie’s mind games are aimed at referee Peyper

With the Autumn Internationals finally over, at long last we don’t have to listen to Eddie Jones‘ attempts at witty repartee. First we had fish and chips and then East Enders as descriptions of how his England team would approach the games, whereas all we got, as good as it was, is more of the same.
Jones has found a simple recipe for the success of his team: a power game up front with the occasional spice of quick hands and pace in the backs but heavy reliant on a goal kicker keeping the board ticking over.
That reliance has led to some of the comments Jones has made in the Press. First we had the ‘bully boys’ South Africa, who in truth have been anything but, more resembling the ‘whipping boys’ in every game they played.
For Fiji Jones may have called for fish and chip (basic) rugby but with a few recalled players, (Semesa Rokoduguni and Alex Goode were outstanding), putting on a feast of running rugby, I would have hoped it would change his view of what his team was capable of and opened his eyes to some of the talent waiting in the wings.
Against Argentina as much as I admired England’s performance given they played almost all the game with 14 players, it was not without some concerns.
After Daly’s rush of blood and the deserved red ticket, the Twickenham crowd seemed to morph into something I had never seen, piling pressure on referee Pascal Gauzere to send off any Argentinian who made the slightest infringement. Never have I felt such an aggressive atmosphere at Twickenham and when Juan Pablo Estelles took Jonny May in the air, despite May jumping to his feet, the calls to send Estelles off were deafening.
All the constant negativity from the crowd affected referee Gauzere’s decisions, awarding 17 penalties against Argentina and only nine against a depleted England team and most of the England penalties came at the protracted half-time scrum session.
The series of scrums itself left a lot of questions as England were put under constant pressure, continued to infringe, were penalised and eventually received a yellow card, given to Dan Cole unjustly I feel, but still no penalty try for the Argentinians.
Usually in games where a player is sent off, it is the side with the missing player that gives away the most penalties as they try to slow the game to stop the opposition from using their extra player. However, I feel Gauzere folded under the constant pressure of the angry crowd and tried too hard to get them on his side.
Argentina dominated the scrums until Jamie George came on. It was only then that England were able to impose themselves in the scrum, which must have been a worry for Jones and may explain his post-match attack on the Australian scrum a whole week before the game.
The Jones attack was probably for the benefit of match referee Jaco Peyper to try to plant a seed of doubt in his mind as to the Aussies’ ability to hold the power of England’s pack, which in all honesty hasn’t shown itself this autumn.
In my mind Peyper is not a good referee, especially at the scrum and he is a bit of a ‘homer’ so Jones’ little push and Cheika‘s immediate rebuff that Cole was a cheat just ramped up the pressure on Peyper.
I don’t think Cole is the problem with England’s pack. He is very powerful in the scrummage, even if he is a bit tall. In fact, because of his height he tends to stay fairly straight, balanced on both feet, enabling a powerful drive although it can make it easier to drop him to the floor just by dipping.
Cole’s power also creates problems for the referee because he sometimes splits the loosehead from the hooker, allowing the loosehead to attack Cole from the side, driving in, turning Cole inward, which the referee may interpret as Cole boring.
As most referees have little or no idea what is happening in a scrum, World Rugby putting them in charge of the engagement was always going to cause problems especially when coaches use the media to add to the confusion. The referees worry too much about the minutia of the bind and engagement and yet don’t seem to see the obvious crooked feeds that the entire stadium can see.
Over the years Australia have struggled in the scrum enabling a number of former England coaches to use the media to question their ability but that has changed, they are now almost as good as everyone else.
However, lest we forget, it was England’s scrum against Eddie Jones’ Australia in 2003 that were almost penalised off the park and only the substituting of Jason Leonard on to the field saved the day by stopping the penalties.