Friday 9 February 2018 22:58, UK
Wales captain Alun Wyn Jones has laughed off criticisms made by England head coach Eddie Jones regarding his apparent "contrived behaviour" against Scotland, ahead of Wales' Twickenham clash on Saturday.
England boss Jones launched a stinging attack on the second row on Thursday, calling his actions regarding Scottish fly-half Finn Russell's late conversion last week "out of order", accusing him of disrespecting "the integrity of the referee".
Indeed, the Australian went further and confirmed he had spoken to World Rugby regarding the issue, such were the strength of his feelings, and claimed Wales' Jones would "not intimidate [referee] Jerome Garces" against England.
On Friday, the Welsh lock laughed the England boss' claims off, suggesting there was possible "deflection" at play and a lack of focus on what really matters: the game.
"It is the sort of thing that you can choose your friends, but you can't choose your family, so I think I will have to have a chat with Uncle Eddie after the game," Jones quipped on Thursday.
"I don't know if there's an element of deflection or anything like that, but, ultimately, as players, we are inside the tent and we have got to deal with that happens between the white lines.
"I've not seen an exact transcription of Eddie Jones' comments, so I can't comment too much on the specifics.
"But it was more important that World Rugby, when they were asked for clarification, came back and essentially said that they saw nothing untoward with what happened.
"More importantly, Pascal [Gauzerre, the referee] at the time, had no issue, or no issue after the game.
"I'm very grateful that Eddie has flagged that up with World Rugby. I'll keep doing what I'm doing and keep within the spirit of the game."
When asked to respond to Eddie Jones' other comments during the week, that certain Wales players would "lack bottle" at the weekend, the Ospreys man made light of such comments again.
"We've been sponsored by a well-known brewery for a long time, so there's plenty of bottle there," he joked. "But it's funny, last week I was asked the question about being the underdog at home [v Scotland], nobody's even asked that this week because it's already assumed or presumed.
"It's also funny a lot of the focus has been on a lot of words rather than an important 80 minutes for us tomorrow. That's our focus."
Click play on the video above to watch Alun Wyn Jones' response to Eddie Jones' comments regarding him.
