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Referee Angus Gardner has withdrawn from the South Africa vs Ireland series
By Ian Cameron
Australian official Angus Gardner has withdrawn from refereeing duties during the South Africa versus Ireland series for 'personal reasons'.
He will be replaced by England's Luke Pearce as match day referee for the first Test at Loftus Versfeld on July 6th and as AR for the second Test at the Hollywoodbets Kings Park, Durban the following weekend.
A World Rugby statement on the matter reads: "World Rugby has confirmed that Angus Gardner (Australia) has withdrawn from officiating duties for the two-test series between South Africa and Ireland for personal reasons. The Australian will be replaced by Luke Pearce (England) as referee for the first test and also as assistant referee for the second test.
"As a consequence of the change, there are also further amendments to the appointments, including Christophe Ridley (England), replacing Pearce as assistant referee for Japan v Georgia on 13 July."
Gardner began officiating in Super Rugby in 2012. Gardner made his Test debut in 2011, officiating a match between Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu. He has since refereed numerous international matches, including fixtures in the Rugby Championship and Six Nations. Gardner was named World Rugby Referee of the Year in 2018. He has officiated at three Rugby World Cups, in 2015, 2019 and 2023.
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Given rugby union's complicated history with apartheid, I don't think it would be appropriate to select a player who played for Tel Aviv, so its probably for the best that Borthwick's back 3 selections are pretty settled.
Beard looks like a great player, but he's yet another 13, when what we really need is a 12. I'm also concerned that he's a player who thrives in loose games, when he's given lots of space to run, which is what he'll get against Japan. So if Bortwick picks him he'll probably play really well, but that actually won't tell us anything about whether he's international standard or not. Wales in the 6N might be an even easier game than Japan, but its likely to be more structured, so would give Beard a tougher test.
It probably would be good to see Clark and Willis given a shot. England really need a better number 8 option than Dombrandt, and a solid 4th choice second row - I'm not sure if Clark is that yet, but he's young so good grow into the role. Unfortunately he's never played 6 before, but I don't think that's an issue given that Martin, Itoje, and Chessum all have a lot of game time there.
Go to commentsYeah defence is still an issue but a big turnaround in the quality of the attack and having a decent maul puts pressure on teams not to give away penalties close to their try lines. The ABs I thought lacked their killer instinct on the weekend, going for penalities rather than tries like they did. The Wallabies down to 14 men still went for the maul rather than trying to be conservative with a penalty and use some time and it totally turned the game back in their favour.
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