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England were not lucky swears Eddie Jones but TMO baffles Michael Cheika

Eddie Jones praised the television match official system after three calls went England’s way in their record victory over Australia, but Michael Cheika said the process confused him as the war of words between the former Randwick team-mates continued.

Australia had two tries ruled out on review while England’s first, scored by the wing Elliot Daly, was allowed after the officials took four minutes to decide whether the ball had grazed the touchline before Daly got to it. In addition, the Wallabies lost two players to the sin-bin and were down to 13 men each side of the interval.

Jones bristled when asked in the post-match media conference whether his team had been lucky having said immediately after the game on television that his side had “enjoyed the bounce of the ball”. “How are we lucky?” the England head coach replied. “Why do we have referees? Why do we have television match officials? They do 10 replays of the video and they make a decision. How are we lucky? We had the bounce of the ball otherwise Jonny May would not have scored his try, but that has nothing to do with the referee or the TMO.”

Cheika said he struggled to understand why some reviews lasted for longer than others. He was referring to the four minutes taken to rule Daly’s try legitimate while, in the first half, the Australia captain, Michael Hooper, had a try ruled out after a review lasting seconds. “I am not sure about the process,” said Cheika. “How many replays does it take? I am not ranking them because it was not the Academy Awards. Whatever the TMO wants, he wants.

“We lost a try for offside, but it is obvious English players were offside. There is no point in making submissions to World Rugby; you just get on with it.”

Hooper said he felt he should have been awarded the try when England were leading 3-0. “I was in front of the kicker but worked my way back so that when Marika Koroibete played it, I was behind him. That is why I went for the ball and I am not sure what I should have done.”

Jones was caught on camera swearing last week during the victory over Argentina and Cheika was filmed following an expletive with the word cheats during the first half. “When you go down to 13 men, you are steaming,” he said. “Is this question a reflection of what the game has become?”

It was England’s 21st victory in 22 matches under Jones and they should make it 22 wins next weekend against a Samoa side who lost in Romania on Saturday. “We will sit down and decide whether to make changes or stick with this side and see if we can play better,” he said.

“It was a tough old game against Australia, a great Test between two even teams. It was an arm-wrestle and we stuck at it. You had to take your opportunities and we did that better than them, smart tactically in really difficult conditions which we played superbly.”

England consolidated their position as second in the rankings behind New Zealand. Daly said: “That was really important. We want to be the best team in the world and you could see today that we are growing as a team.”