Saturday’s Rugby Championship match between South Africa and Australia in Sydney will be refereed by a second referee from New Zealand.
Along with his TMO and fellow New Zealander, Brendon Pickerill, Paul Williams infuriated Springboks fans and disappointed the Springboks themselves with a number of perplexing rulings on Saturday.
The instances in question were Wallabies wing Marika Koroibete’s last-ditch tackle to deny Springboks flier Makazole Mapimpi a try and Springboks scrumhalf Faf de Klerk’s yellow card for’slapping’ Wallabies wing Nic White.
Although Paul Williams will not be the referee on Saturday, he will serve as one of the assistant referees, while Pickerill will continue to serve as the TMO. The second assistance referee will be the same obscure Frenchman as last weekend, Tual Trainini.
Ben O’Keeffe, another New Zealander, will referee Saturday’s Test. He oversaw the crucial second Test between the Boks and British & Irish Lions last year.
Nick Mallett mentioned this game in his most recent editorial for Sport24, underlining the necessity for the Springboks to control the referees better than they did last weekend.
“Looking forward to this weekend, when Ben O’Keeffe will be in charge, the Boks and (Siya) Kolisi will need to be much more outspoken to ensure the game is officiated fairly and in their favor,” Mallett wrote.
“O’Keeffe obviously officiated the second Test against the British and Irish Lions after the Rassie Erasmus video that criticized Nic Berry in the first Test. In that game, he was thorough and spent an enormous lot of time, and I don’t believe he made a single mistake.
“I don’t believe this match will put O’Keeffe under as much stress and anxiety as when the Boks played the Lions, but both teams are anxious to win on Saturday since they are still in the tournament.
“The Boks must have street smarts. They must understand that Australia will always be on the edge of the law, and Kolisi will be crucial in this regard. He must speak with O’Keeffe as soon as the first scrum collapses or the first time they don’t take a hit or bring down a maul. He must consistently exert pressure on O’Keeffe.”
At the Allianz Stadium, kickoff is set at 11:35. (SA time).
AUSTRALIA V BOKS
Australia
15 Reece Hodge, 14 Tom Wright, 13 Len Ikitau, 12 Hunter Paisami, 11 Marika Koroibete, 10 Noah Lolesio, 9 Nic White, 8 Rob Valetini, Seven Fraser McReight, six Jed Holloway, five Matt Philip, four Rory Arnold, three Allan Alaalatoa, two Folau Fainga’a, and one James Slipper make up the top ten (c).
16 David Porecki, 17 Scott Sio, 18 Taniela Tupou, 19 Darcy Swain, 20 Rob Leota, 21 Pete Samu, 22 Jake Gordon, and 23 Andrew Kellaway served as replacements.
Boks
15 Willie le Roux, 14 Canan Moodie, 13 Jesse Kriel, 12 Damian de Allende, 11 Makazole Mapimpi, 10 Damian Willemse, 9 Jaden Hendrikse, 8 Jasper Wiese, 7 Franco Mostert, 6 Siya Kolisi (captain), 5 Lood de Jager, 4 Eben Etzebeth, 3 Frans Malherbe, 2 Malcolm Marx, 1 Steven Kitshoff
Subs: 16 Deon Fourie, 17 Ox Nche, 18 Trevor Nyakane, 19 Kwagga Smith, 20 Duane Vermeulen, 21 Cobus Reinach, Twenty-two Frans Steyn and twenty-three Warrick Gelant