WORLD RUGBY HAVE removed Marius van der Westhuizen from duty for Ireland’s Six Nations grand finale with England at Twickenham on Saturday.
The South African official, who was due to be assistant referee this weekend, officiated during an England training session earlier this week.
Such an action is not against World Rugby regulations, however the governing body has now decided to stand Van der Westhuizen down and replace him with Nigel Owens, adding that it takes responsibility for this ‘oversight.’
Australia’s Angus Gardner remains as referee, with Jaco Peyper running the other line.
“World Rugby has confirmed that Marius van der Westhuizen will be replaced by Nigel Owens as Assistant Referee 2 for the Natwest 6 nations match between England and Ireland at Twickenham on Saturday,” a statement read.
“The decision follows Marius’ attendance at an England training session this week. While greater dialogue and collaboration between match officials and teams (including attending team training on request) has been agreed by World Rugby and the teams, Marius should not have been involved given that he was a member of the match official team for the weekend’s match.
“World Rugby takes responsibility for this oversight and has taken the proactive decision to stand Marius down to avoid any additional unfair and unnecessary conjecture. Marius is an outstanding talent with a big international future and both he and his employer SARU fully support the decision.
World Rugby has also clarified with teams that, in addition to the regular pre-match coach and referee meetings, senior elite teams will continue to have the opportunity to request that a member of the high-performance match official panel attends training providing that the individual is not a member of the match official team officiating that team at a later date within the current competition or test window.”
When asked about Van der Westhuizen’s involvement in his team’s training session in the build-up to Saturday’s Test match and whether it was a conflict of interest, England head coach Eddie Jones earlier said: ”What, are are you questioning his integrity?
“We went through World Rugby, which is the proper channel. We went through World Rugby, asked for a southern hemisphere referee to try to help us with our breakdown, and that’s what they offered.”
Joe Schmidt was asked the same question during his team announcement at Carton House this afternoon: ”I’m sure in retrospect people are probably thinking it’s not the best thing to do.
“I know Marius and I would have no hesitation in standing by his integrity. I don’t think it will affect his decision making and we’ll stand by him as an official on Saturday.”
