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 from World Rugby confirmed: “The decision follows Marius van der Westhuizen’s 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 (the South African Rugby Union) 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.”
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