England head coach Steve Borthwick has urged World Rugby to step in after his side were the victims of controversial decisions in the defeat to France.
Some would argue that the visitors were on the end of a few harsh calls in the narrow 48-46 loss, but the Red Rose boss was particularly frustrated by the incident which led to Louis Bielle-Biarrey’s fourth try.
Following a scrum, the ball was tapped down by a French hand, leading to referee Nika Amashukeli immediately calling a deliberate knock-on.
However, after the television match official had reviewed it, he told Amashukeli that it was not deliberate.
The confusion
That resulted in the Georgian official downgrading the offence before calling ‘advantage over’, but not everyone on the England side had heard the message.
“We’ve been told on the pitch it was a penalty advantage,” Borthwick told reporters.
“And I know probably some people at home are looking at why we played the way we did, and it should be explained that the players on the pitch were told it was a penalty advantage. So they played in a certain manner that knowing you had a penalty to go back to.
“Unfortunately, what happened in the background is the TMO would change it to a knock on advantage. The players were unaware of it, and France go down the other end and score a try.
“I think that World Rugby needs to look at that kind of situation. You can’t have the players playing with certain knowledge and then it taken away from them. Knowing that, I think some of those bits I find confusing.”
This latest incident comes after Borthwick revealed to ITV Sport that World Rugby admitted to a key error in a previous England game.
During the Calcutta Cup clash with Scotland in Round Two, the governing body stated that Henry Arundell should not have been sin-binned by Amashukeli.
Arundell would then receive a second yellow card later – and therefore a red – in the first half as England went down to a 31-20 defeat at Murrayfield.
Other controversial call
It was not the only sin-binning Borthwick had issues with in the Six Nations finale.
Ellis Genge was sent to the naughty step for collapsing a maul and a penalty try was awarded, while Les Bleus touched down twice more at the start of the second period with Genge off the field.
“I thought that one against Ellis to give a penalty try — I don’t follow it. I’ll ask for it to be explained to me,” Borthwick added.
“I’ll be very clear, our discipline needs to be better. We need to keep 15 men on the pitch.”