Eddie Jones claims referee tried to 'help' Australia and 'even it up' after Darcy Swain red card

England head coach Eddie Jones claimed referee James Doleman tried to help Australia after sending off Wallabies lock Darcy Swain as his side slumped to their fourth successive defeat in Perth

The 30-28 reverse also marks back-to-back matches in which England have lost after the opposition have had a player red carded in the first half following their blowout loss to the Barbarians, this time Swain for headbutting Jonny Hill. If that was not enough of a disadvantage, Australia also lost three players to injury before the half-hour mark with fly-half Quade Cooper (calf) in the warm-up, full-back Tom Banks (broken arm) and prop Allan Alaalatoa (concussion) all being withdrawn. Yet a flurry of three tries in 13 minutes allowed them to overturn a 14-8 deficit and halt their eight-game losing run against Jones’ England. 

A late pair of tries from replacements Henry Arundell and Jack van Poortvliet gave the scoreline a flattering gloss but Jones said that England had let Australia off the hook during the periods of dominance in the first half and just after half-time. Led by Michael Hooper, Australia controlled the breakdown battle in the second half and Jones suggested that New Zealander Doleman was trying to “even it up”.

“I think 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,” Jones said. “And therefore we paid the price.

“He evens it up. He helps the team with the red card. You look at the history of the game, whenever you get a red card the referee evens it up. It’s social reciprocality, it happens, that’s normal and we’ve got to be good enough to handle it. 

“That happens in