England coach Eddie Jones defends Owen Farrell's referee comments
Monday 20 November 2017 22:57, UK
Eddie Jones has played down Owen Farrell's influence over referee Ben O'Keefe during England's win over Australia.
Farrell remonstrated with O'Keefe to take another look at Stephen Moore's potential offside in the build-up to Marika Koroibete's try, which was then disallowed by the TMO.
However, Jones doesn't think there is any problem and allayed fears that rugby is heading down the same road as football in regard to speaking to officials.
"If the referee accepts the way he spoke to him was alright then that's alright for me," the England head coach told Sky Sports News.
"I think our relationships with referees are pretty positive in the main. There will always be certain cases where - as we have seen in the grandstand - where your emotions get the best of you, and that happens on the field.
"I don't think we should be overly worried about it but certainly it's up to the referee to monitor those behaviours."
Underhill out of Samoa Test
Jones confirmed Sam Underhill will miss Saturday's Test against Samoa, live on Sky Sports Action, as he follows return-to-play protocols but Mike Brown is in line to return.
"Sam suffered his second concussion in the space of 6-8 weeks so we feel it's in his best interests to sit out this week," said Jones.
Live International Rugby Union
"Mike finishes his return-to-play on Monday and we anticipate he'll be fit. Anthony Watson did superbly for us at 15 so we've got great competition for that spot."
Jones also suggested he will rest some of his Lions contingent, with Exeter's Sam Simmonds expected to see more game time, and he wants to see a more polished performance in attack from his players.
"We thought our defence at the weekend was very good," he said. "Attack-wise we missed a couple of opportunities. We want our set piece to be absolutely humming on Saturday."
Samoa suffered their second defeat of the autumn against Romania last weekend but Jones is refusing to take victory for granted.
"With Samoa you never know what to expect, they're the most unpredictable team," he said.
"They like to hit, to come out of the line, and then in attack they've got some great players with great feet.
"[Tim] Nanai-Williams has got feet as good as anyone in the world so you've got to be on your game defensively."
