Eddie Jones dismisses claim that England were lucky as Australia coach Michael Cheika responds to fans' abuse

Australian coach was involved in an unsavoury incident with a fan at Twickenham and revealed that he was consistently targeted during the 30-6 defeat

Eddie Jones believes England did not need not need luck to beat Australia (Getty)

Eddie Jones insisted England deserved the record 30-6 victory over Australia even though a number of close calls went in their favour, with the head coach insisting that the referee and television match official made the correct calls because they are the best people to do so.

Referee Ben O’Keeffe and TMO Simon McDowell drew the ire of the Australia head coach, Michael Cheika, after deciding to chalk off a try by Michael Hooper as well as allow one from England wing Elliot Daly. Australia also had a second potential score wiped off due to an obstruction call on Marika Koroibete when the scores were finely poised at 13-6, and England responded by scoring three tries in the final eight minutes, with Jonathan Joseph, Jonny May and Danny Care adding to Elliot Daly’s earlier score.

The three decisions proved crucial, as Hooper’s offside prevented the Wallabies from going ahead on the scoreboard in the first half, before Daly crossed for the game’s opening try after the break after just keeping the ball in-play when if flirted with the touchline.

Cheika was so incensed with the decisions during the match that he was seen leaving the coach’s box to take to the sidelines, getting in a minor altercation with a fan en route, but Jones insisted that England deserved everything that they received on Saturday because the decisions were not made by them, but by the officials.

“Why do we have a referee? Why do we have TMOs?” Jones said. “I don’t understand the question. How were we lucky? They do 10 replays of video and they make a decision. This is the best referee in the world for today, the best guys in the TMO and you’re saying we’re lucky because the decisions went our way. I’m sorry we were lucky.”

Hooper’s try was correctly chalked off after he was caught in an offside position when teammate Tevita Kuridrani kicked the ball forwards. Despite wing Marika Koroibete getting to the ball to hack it onwards and put Hooper back onside, the fact that Hooper had continued his run forwards when in front of Kuridrani meant that under law 11.4 he was still offside. Had he retreated or halted his run, the flanker would have been brought back into play, and O’Keeffe to his credit realised this and awarded a penalty in England’s favour as a result.

Cheika was targeted with abuse from fans at Twickenham (Getty)

The decision brought an angry response from Cheika – the second such reaction in the Twickenham coach’s box in a week after Jones’ outburst during the win over Australia – and the Wallabies coach sarcastically applauded the referee as well as muttering an expletive.

The television cameras also captured Cheika being involved in in a momentary row with a supporter, but he was keen to play down the incident. However, he did add that the abuse he received was unpleasant and admitted that it’s something that he’s come to expect.

Cheika was furious with the decisions to disallow tries by Hooper and Koroibete (Getty)

“There are plenty of fans giving me a gob-full and it’s not pleasant,” Cheika said. “That is the way it goes and I know going down the stairs I am going to cop abuse.”

“There is no point [complaining]. If you have to make submissions about that sort of stuff then there is no point going.

“It is totally normal to get angry and you have to clear your head. We are doing whatever we can to be a team and nation of no excuses and we showed a lot of courage and determination and stayed in the game in the face of a lot of adversity.”

Cheika was targeted with abuse from fans at Twickenham (Getty)

Referencing Koroibete’s disallowed try late in the game that was wiped off for obstruction by replacement hooker Stephen Moore, Cheika believes that England were also infringing, adding: “It is pretty obvious that when they disallowed Marika’s try the English players were all offside.”