The controversy surrounding certain refereeing decisions by Ben O’Keeffe during the quarter-final between France and South Africa did not move World Rugby. This Tuesday, the governing body appointed the New Zealand referee for the semi-final between England and… the Springboks, Saturday evening at the Stade de France. With a slight change. He will be accompanied by the Irishman Andrew Brace as assistant referee so as not to entirely renew the New Zealand quartet which had raged during the quarter-final, his compatriots Paul Williams (assistant) and Brendon Pickerill (video referee) being retained.
“These designations are based on selection on merit,” World Rugby said in its press release. However, we may also be surprised by this choice by the presence of New Zealand in the Friday evening final. Mr. O’Keeffe will thus know before kick-off whether his country’s selection has qualified, feeding the suspicion, obviously unfounded, of being able to choose the opponent who will face the All Blacks in the final…
Australian Angus Gardner will referee the other semi-final between Argentina and New Zealand, Friday evening in Saint-Denis. He will be accompanied by assistant referees Nic Berry (Australia) and Karl Dickson (England), as well as video referee Ben Whitehouse (Wales). A mixture of nationalities consistent with customs and which makes the 100% New Zealand quartet who officiated in the quarter-final of the Blues even more incomprehensible…
This will be the first World Cup semi-final for both Angus Gardner and Ben O’Keeffe. The absence of Frenchman Mathieu Raynal among these eight referees confirms the trend according to which he would be favorite to referee the final, on October 28.
In addition, World Rugby has confirmed that Jaco Peyper (South Africa) is out of the rest of the competition due to a calf injury sustained during the quarter-final between Wales and Argentina in Marseille.
