Alun Wyn will bounce back – Byrne (From Western Telegraph)

Alun Wyn will bounce back – Byrne

11:04am Monday 8th February 2010 in

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LEE Byrne hopes there will be no witch-hunt after Alun Wyn Jones’ moment of madness cost Wales dearly at Twickenham.

The big lock has copped plenty of flak for a crazy trip that saw him sent to the sin bin by referee Alain Rolland.

Jones instinctively flicked out his right boot to trip England hooker Dylan Hartley in the 36th-minute – the hosts racked up 17 points in his absence.

Wales, Pontypool and Lions legend Graham Price labelled it “completely bonkers for a player of his experience”, “half-witted” was the verdict of television summariser Brian Moore and Jones felt the wrath of coaches Warren Gatland and Shaun Edwards after the match.

Twickenham centenary was celebrated on Saturday and memories of past clashes between England and Wales had been to the fore in print and on television.

One of those was of Paul Ringer 30 years ago after the flanker was given his marching orders inside the opening quarter for an apparent late hit.

Jones’ ten minute spell off the field could well win him the same infamy, though hopefully it will not lead to Max Boyce penning a song, but the focus in the Wales camp in now on Scotland.

“We can’t point fingers at times like these,” said Byrne. “We need to pull together and put things right against Scotland.

“We will all learn from it and hopefully get back on track on Saturday. Alun’s down, but so is everyone after a defeat and there is no doubt he will bounce back and has a great chance against Scotland.”

The frustration was clear for Wales, who felt they had not been beaten by a better England side but a more savvy one, who steadied the ship after seeing a 17-point lead reduced to three.

“We only seemed to come out and play when we were behind,” lamented Byrne. When we were coming back, I thought there was going to be a repeat of two years ago but it just wasn’t to be.

“There were some positives out there but we cannot allow teams to build a lead like that and expect to win the game. We need to play from the first kick-off.

“We cannot let them get ahead, at international level you cannot chase the game down. We have probably lacked that in recent games and we need to be on it from the start against Scotland.”