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Underfire ref Angus Gardner switched out of England Argentina duty
By Ian Cameron
Reporting from Tokyo: Referee Angus Gardner has been switched out of this weekend's England Argentina game.
Ben O’Keefe of New Zealand will be replacing Gardner as an assistant referee, while Gardner will instead be posted to AR duty on Japan versus Samoa.
Both referees' officiating has come in for criticism during the Pool stages.
O'Keefe was heavily criticed by the press, fans and indeed World Rugby for failing to action Reece Hodge following a high hit on Peceli Yato of Fiji. The tackle saw Yato fail a HIA and Hodge was ultimately suspended for the remaining three pool games.
Gardner also is understood to have come in for internal criticism following his officiating of the France Argentina pool game.
Joe Schmidt has also now revealed that World Rugby confirmed that three out of four offside calls during Ireland famous loss to Japan last weekend were incorrect, once again painting Gardner in a poor light.
“We were penalised for offside four times and we’ve now got the feedback that three of those were incorrect calls. People were asking us about our discipline.
“It’s pretty hard to keep getting off the line and onto the front foot when you are getting those calls. Two of them were from an AR (assistant referee – Garces) who is going to be refereeing us on Thursday, so we know we’re going to have to be on our best behaviour.
“One thing I would say about this team is that they try to go out and deliver and, generally speaking, it’s unusual for us to have a higher penalty count than our opponents. So it’s frustrating.
“I thought Wayne [Barnes] did a super job (in Ireland v Scotland)."
A statement from World Rugby says that change are for travel programme reasons: "Ben O’Keefe is replacing Angus Gardner as Assistant Referee 1.
"Angus Gardner is replacing Ben O’Keeffe."
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If the weather is bad, it will become a forward game, and that is very bad news for England. The English defence is like sieve. The Boks have the best defence. Letting in 42 points, against the Wallabies who the Boks thrashed... You get the point. We all wish our teams are tough and will front up, but ignoring the obvious only brings pain. The fans like to believe the best, the players know the truth. They will try their best, I'm sure of that, but winning? A close game? Not a chance, and it's against almost a full strength Bok team. That should scare you. I'd suggest go and watch some of the games of the Boks this year. I doubt you followed the Boks tests and watched them, because if you had, you would not be so sure.
Go to commentsAndy G is so poor at judging players and his only skill, even as a player, is to try to cause a reaction. Never rated him as a player although he did have longevity, and surely don't rate him as a pundit. His only pundit skill is try to cause a reaction, no matter his lack of understanding of the game and how coaches operate! That is my view. formed over years!! If I say it I surely it cannot be wrong....LOL. In saying that, I wonder why all these past England players ALWAYS knock their current players. This is not new but it is a massive problem in England. For some reason the "old boys" think they were better than they actually were.
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