VIDEO: Boks found their ref replacement for Nigel Owens
NEWS: Nigel Owens may not be available, but the Springboks have the next best on board.
South Africa’s top referee is working with the Boks at their pre-Rugby Championship training camp in Pretoria this week to touch up on all the new World Rugby directives.
Jaco Peyper can be seen as a replacement for renowned retired referee Nigel Owens, who turned down an offer from South Africa’s Director of Rugby, Johan Erasmus, to assist the Springboks ahead of the World Cup.
The Boks have been in a training camp in Pretoria ahead of their first Test against Australia at Loftus on July 8.
Springbok coach Jacques Nienaber told a media briefing on Tuesday that Peyper will spend the week with the team, before heading to Toulouse for the World Cup referees camp.
“This week we focused on the work we did last week and just built on that layer upon layer,” Nienaber said.
“We are definitely not a polished product yet.
“There is still a lot of work to do.”
The Bok coach added that one of the aspects they brought in this week was for SA’s No.1 Jaco Peyer to join them before he heads to Toulouse for his World Rugby camp.
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“It is great to have him with us,” he said.
“He is helping us work through all the new directives from World Rugby and makes us attentive and touching up to ensure we are all aligned with the referees,” the Springbok coach explained.
In March Erasmus contacted Owens to take six months away from his current way of life on the farm in Wales and throw everything in with helping the Springboks.
Owens decided to turn down the offer, citing too much of a workload on the farm as well as his current roles with Wales, World Rugby and the United Rugby Championship.
“Between overseeing the refereeing academy, coaching officials and doing Whistle Watch, I have got more than enough going on to keep me busy,” Owens said at the time.
The 40-year-old Peyper and Marius Jonker are the two South African referees that have been picked to officiate at the World Cup in France later this year.
A total of 26 match officials (12 referees, seven assistant referees, and seven Television Match Officials) representing nine nations with more than 630 Test appearances between them, will take charge of the 48 tournament matches.
The 42-year-old Peyper, who has 61 Tests to his name will referee at his third consecutive World Cup.
The nine nations represented on the panel are Australia, England, France, Georgia, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, South Africa and Wales, with a total of 453 Tests among the 12 referees (eight have refereed at a World Cup).
