Frenchman Jerome Garces will return to officiate two All Blacks matches in Rugby Championship

NZ Herald

10 Jul, 2017 07:29 PM2 mins to read

French referee Jerome Garces shows a red card to New Zealand inside centre Sonny Bill Williams to send him from the field during the second rugby test. Photo / AP.

French referee Jerome Garces will officiate the All Blacks' two toughest matches at the Rugby Championship.

World Rugby announced the match official appointments for the tournament today, with Garces, who was controversially involved in the All Blacks' 'non-penalty' decision late in the third test against the British and Irish Lions, to rule over the All Blacks' away matches against Australia and South Africa.

Assistant referee Garces is the man who convinced Romain Poite to change his decision on the penalty in the final minutes which could have won the test and the series for the All Blacks.

Lions captain Sam Warburton has taken the credit for saying Ken Owens' handling the ball in an offside position at Eden Park was accidental rather than deliberate, but a private conversation between Garces and countryman Poite, possibly in French, was the "deal-maker", a deliberate term as this exchange proves.

Garces also sent off Sonny Bill Williams in the 24-21 loss to the Lions at Westpac Stadium on July 1.

Poite, who made the controversial call late in the drawn third Test against the Lions, will be a touch judge for the Cape Town match.

However, he won't referee for any New Zealand fixture, instead controlling the opening-round Springboks-Pumas Test in Port Elizabeth.

Five of the All Blacks' seven looming Tests will be officiated by Northern Hemisphere whistlers.

They get England's Wayne Barnes twice, including for the third Bledisloe Cup Test.

New Zealand referees Glen Jackson and Ben O'Keeffe have been handed a Test each in the Rugby Championship.

Refereeing schedule for 2017 Rugby Championship:

August 19