England coach Eddie Jones had some choice words about Wales’ scrummaging techniques ahead of Saturday’s game at Twickenham.
Jones insisted that Wales scrummage illegally all the time and said that referees are too afraid to penalise them. This is coming just shortly after Wales coach Robin McBryde said Wales will be pointing the finger at England prop, Joe Marler, if he scrummages illegally:
He definitely needs to scrummage legally otherwise we will be pointing the finger. He got found out against Australia.
Jones shot back and the Welsh team on Thursday stating:
What Wales do, they play the laws very well. I’m quite upset about the way they scrummage. They scrummage illegally. They pre-engage all the time which is against the laws of the game.
They get penalised one or two times at the start of the scrum, but then they get sick of penalising them because if the referee keeps penalising them, then the referee gets criticised.
Jones says he is 100 percent certain that Wales have been scrummaging illegally all Six Nations. He believes they do it consistently, however, the referees cannot keep penalising the team because the commentators will say that the referees are ruining the game when in actuality it is Wales that is:
We want the referee to be really hard and if he wants to ruin the game, then he has to ruin the game.
As reported by Wales Online, when asked about what he wants referee Craig Joubert to do if Wales continue with their tricks, Jones simply stated:
Keep penalising them.
Jones believes that his England side have the strongest scrum, so if the rules can be enforced his team can get an advantage in that area.
