Six Nations 2018: World Rugby remove Marius van der Westhuizen from England vs Ireland to avoid ‘unfair conjecture’

Nigel Owens will replace the South African after he refereed an England training session this week ahead of the Six Nations encounter at Twickenham

World Rugby have removed assistant referee Marius van der Westhuizen from this Saturday’s Six Nations clash between England and Ireland following his controversial attendance among Eddie Jones’ squad this week, with the governing body taking responsibility for the “oversight”.

The South African’s attendance at Pennyhill Park on Tuesday raised serious question about World Rugby’s regulations, with Ireland growing deeply concerned that an official due to take part in this weekend’s match was allowed to visit one of the team’s involved and help them with their training.

Jones batted away questions on Van der Westhuizen’s presence when he faced the media on Thursday, stating that what England had done was inside the rules after requesting a Southern Hemisphere referee from World Rugby to try and crack their breakdown problems, but a statement released on Thursday evening clarified that they made a mistake in allowing him to work with the England squad.

The decision was made on Thursday to replace him with Welshman Nigel Owens in order to avoid “any additional unfair and unnecessary conjecture” from the Ireland set-up, while other unions could question the use of a match-day official ahead of a Test match.

“The decision follows Marius’ attendance at an England training session this week,” a World Rugby statement read. “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.”

Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt was asked about the use of Van der Westhuizen on Thursday, which certainly caused him more concern than Jones’ “scummy Ireland” jibe that dominated the headlines this week.

"That is a bit of a surprise," said Schmidt. "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."

Nigel Owens will now assist referee Angus Gardner this weekend (Getty) (Getty Images)

But Jones hit back at anyone who questioned their use of Van der Westhuizen, although his subsequent removal certainly casts doubt on the Australian’s claims that they did nothing wrong even if the move was within the rules.

“We have a different referee in each week,” Jones said. “We go to World Rugby if it’s relevant and ask World Rugby to provide a referee. We do it by the book. I can show you the emails if you like. I’m happy to share them. That’s the way it’s done in World Rugby.

“So I don’t understand what all the hullabaloo is about. We did that in November, we asked for Southern Hemisphere refs, because we want different sorts of referees. As much as we like Wayne Barnes, and I love him, he’s a great referee, he’s still from England and we want someone to come in who’s got a different thought process on the game and therefore the players have to react to how he’s refereeing. We’ve had Glen Jackson previously, we’ve his Nick Berry in and now we’ve got Marius, because we want the players to learn about how to adapt to the different sorts of referees.”