Eddie Jones believes Pascal Gauzere should be shown a yellow card for allowing George North’s try in England’s defeat by Wales on Saturday even though the French referee acted within the laws.

Gauzere let Dan Biggar take a quick tap penalty that led to North claiming the crucial score as Warren Gatland’s men avenged their defeat at Twickenham six days earlier through a 13-6 victory in Cardiff.

England were expecting Gauzere to wait for the sin-binned Anthony Watson to leave the pitch as punishment for a deliberate knock-on before allowing Wales to restart play.

However, there is no law requiring the referee to pause the game until the carded player is off the field.

When asked if Gauzere should have waited, England head coach Jones replied: “I think we all thought that was the law. So maybe the yellow card should have gone to the referee.

“It is what it is. We had to cope with whatever he decided was right. And if he wants a variation of the law, we’ve got to be good enough to cope with it.

“It’s not worth going into it because I don’t want that to be the headline of the game. It happened, we had to cope with it, didn’t cope with it, and they scored their winning try. So be it.”