Jones claims England’s performance in defeat could be making of World Cup bid

Eddie Jones has questioned why Ireland were not shown a yellow card as a result of England’s scrum dominance in his side’s 32-15 loss but believes the gallant defeat – in which they played 78 minutes with 14 men – could be the making of their 2023 World Cup campaign.

Jones had no complaints over Charlie Ewels’s second-minute red card and was full of pride for his side’s effort but believes Mathieu Raynal, the French referee, should have meted out stricter punishment to Ireland’s serial offenders at the scrum.

Related: Ireland hold off England to stay in Six Nations title hunt after Ewels’ early red

Despite losing Ewels, England were level at 15-15 with seven minutes to go before late tries from Jack Conan and Finlay Bealham finally broke their resistance. In Ewels’s absence, Courtney Lawes shifted to second row at the scrum with Jack Nowell packing down at flanker but England comprehensively overpowered Ireland, earning six penalties.

“I’m bit disappointed the referee didn’t allow us to scrum fully,” said Jones. “That would be my only complaint, that we weren’t allowed to play advantage away from the scrum – and there was no sign of a yellow card. If World Rugby want to have a scrum in the game they’ve got to allow strong scrums to allow themselves to dominate so we’re disappointed we didn’t get more out of it.”

On Ewels’s second-minute dangerous tackle on James Ryan, who took no further part in the match, Jones added: “He’s disappointed but no one apportions blame on him. It’s a genuine attempt to make a good tackle, he just got his head in the wrong spot. We’ve got no questions about the red card.”

Defeat means England are out of contention for the title and with a trip to grand slam-chasing France next week, Jones’s