“That happens in every game I’ve seen. One team gets a red and the opposition gets evened up, because they’re nice blokes, referees. I’m not criticising the referees, I’m not using it as an excuse, that’s the reality of rugby. I think when you play against 14 men, the referee has a significant impact on the game. He evens it up. He helps the team with the red card.

“You’ve got to be good enough to understand what that impact is and we weren’t good enough to understand what that is. And therefore we paid the price. We are not using the referee as an excuse, but the referee changes and you have to adapt.”

But the notion that Doleman was in any way biased against England lacks substance beyond Jones’ claims. He has since gone on to officiate at last year’s Rugby World Cup as an assistant on eight occasions, before returning to referring duties at the Six Nations to take charge of England once again in what is expected to be a feisty clash in Twickenham.