Rugby World Cup 2019: Ben Youngs questions how Wales were allowed to score controversial try against England

Youngs was not allowed onto the pitch to replace Willi Heinz as Wales made the most of England going down to 13 players to score the match-deciding try

Ben Youngs has questioned why Wales were allowed to take a quick penalty before he was allowed on the pitch during England’s 13-6 defeat on Saturday, with the home side taking full advantage of their opponents’ reduction to 13 men to score the only try of the match.

Wales caught England out when Anthony Watson was given a yellow card by referee Pascal Gauzere for a deliberate knock-on, which coincided with scrum-half Willi Heinz leaving the field for a Head Injury Assessment (HIA).

It momentarily left England down to 13, with Gauzere blowing his whistle to restart the game while Watson was still making his way off the pitch and Heinz was heading down the tunnel. Replacement scrum-half Youngs appeared ready to come on to replace Heinz, but before he was allowed to Wales fly-half Dan Biggar took a quick penalty and launched a cross-field kick to Josh Adams, which resulted in opposite wing George North going over for the try seconds later.

England head coach Eddie Jones refused to criticise the officials after the match for the incident, but while Youngs was in agreement that the players must learn from it to remain alert at all times, he questioned why Wales were allowed to play on so quickly when he was later stopped from doing the same.

“Being down to 13 men is never ideal,” Youngs said. “Ant [Watson] came off and then the boys are in a huddle. Then Willi has come off and I'm waiting to be given the green light to go on.

“Before I know it, Wales are off. It's happened here and I dare say something like that will not happen again. It's one of those things.

“There's nothing as players that you can do about that except take the one lesson which is don't switch off when there's a penalty. Dan [Biggar] is a tremendous kicker of the ball, looked at that opportunity and took it.

“I tried to tap later on in the game and for whatever reason - I don't know if it had been planted in his (the referee's) head that he didn't want anything like that to happen again - but I wasn't allowed to go.

“It is what it is. As long as it's ironed out and doesn't happen in the future I'm sure it will be fine.”

Youngs’ teammate Jamie George was equally as confused, given the understanding among the England camp was that a sin-binned player had to be removed from the field of play before the match can resume – although there is no regulation in the World Rugby laws that state this.

“It was an interesting one wasn’t it?” George said. “I don’t know the ruling on that but it seemed like carnage.

“Willi was coming off, Anthony was coming off, they kicked the ball over Anthony’s head … I don’t know what was going on but it was a bit of a weird one.”

Ben Youngs questioned why he wasn't allowed onto the pitch as Wales scored their one and only try (Getty)

The one positive for England was that they came through the match without any further injuries, though uncapped wing Ruaridh McConnochie is doubtful to face Ireland next Saturday as the muscle strain that ruled him out of making his debut on the morning of Saturday’s encounter will take up to 10 days to heal.

Both Sam Underhill and Tom Curry trained at close to 100 per cent on Saturday morning and should return from toe and shoulder injuries respectively for the third Rugby World Cup warm-up match along with Mark Wilson, who has a rib injury, while Jack Nowell and Henry Slade – who remains in a knee brace – are targeting a return against Italy on 6 September.