Eddie Jones claims referee tried to ‘even things up’ after Australia red card

Eddie Jones believes that 14-man Australia were helped in their first victory over England in nine attempts by the referee James Doleman attempting to “even things up” following Darcy Swain’s first-half red card.

England were leading 6-3 when Swain was sent off for headbutting Jonny Hill, who was shown a yellow card, but the Wallabies romped into a 30-14 lead before a late rally from Jones’s side. Billy Vunipola was also shown a yellow card with 15 minutes to go when Australia had edged ahead at 16-14.

The defeat ends England’s eight-match winning streak against Australia under Jones and is a fourth loss in a row after a disappointing end to the Six Nations and a heavy defeat by the Barbarians – who also had a first-half red card – last month. It further heightens the pressure on Jones, whose side must now win Saturday’s second Test in Brisbane to keep alive any hope of winning the series.

Jones insisted he was not making excuses when making the remarkable claim that every red card he has ever seen has resulted in the referee attempting to compensate by favouring the side reduced to 14 players.

“That always happens,” said Jones. “You look at the history of the game, whenever you get a red card the referee evens it up. That’s normal and we’ve got to be good enough to handle it. When you play against 14 men the referee has a significant impact on the game and you’ve got to be good enough to understand what that is and we weren’t good enough to understand what that is. And therefore we paid the price.

“But that happens in every game of rugby I’ve seen, because they’re nice blokes, referees. I’m not criticising the referees, I’m not using it as an excuse, that’s the reality of rugby. He evens it up. He helps the team with