England coach Eddie Jones strongly criticised the decision to send off Manu Tuilagi during Saturday's 33-30 Six Nations win over Wales at Twickenham.
Tuilagi became the first England player to be sent off in the Championship five minutes from time when he joined Henry Slade in tackling George North in the right corner.
After consultation with the TMO, Kiwi referee Ben O’Keeffe opted to send Tuilagi off. As a result, he is facing a six-week ban.
“I just find it bizarre,” Jones said. “I usually don’t comment, but I don’t see how you can tackle a guy. You might as well just say you let him go, because how else are you supposed to tackle him?
"This bit about where your arms are, what a load of rubbish.
“Manu was trying to kill the tackle. That’s the only thing he was trying to do. It’s absolute rubbish. I’m sorry, I’ve broken my rule.
“It just seems there’s no common sense applied in that situation. Clearly the guy is falling, there’s a good chop tackle and Manu is coming over the top to kill the tackle.
"He’s doing everything that he’s supposed to be doing and he gets red carded. Like, come on.”
Jones said that England ended the game playing 13 against 16 – a suggestion that the referee was on Wales’ side.
“At the end, we were 13 against 16, it’s hard,” he said. “When you have got a three man advantage, you are going to do some damage.
"That’s what happened. We had a numerical disadvantage, so it was tough.”
