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Andrew Brace withdrawn from refereeing duty in France over personal abuse

(Photo by Getty Images)

The referee that oversaw the finale of the Autumn Nations Cup between England and France has been removed from Heineken Champions Cup duty in France next weekend due to the personal abuse he was subjected to by Les Bleus fans in the aftermath of the match in Twickenham.  England beat France in sudden-death extra time with a kick from Owen Farrell, but the performance of Brace was heavily criticised by some rugby fans online.

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A minority of fans went to the extent of leaving abusive messages on his late father’s obituary which he had posted recently on Twitter.

Video after the game appeared to show that Brace and his fellow officials had missed a knock-on by England’s Billy Vunipola in the lead up to a crucial try that was scored a few phases later. Hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie touched down, forcing the game into sudden-death extra time.

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Chris Ashton speaks to Big Jim Hamilton:

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Chris Ashton speaks to Big Jim Hamilton:

Brace received hundreds of abusive messages on Twitter, as a result of what some fans perceived as decisions favouring the home side. Video footage also called in question some calls that in fact favoured the French in the lead-up to their first try, but this was conveniently missed by irate French supporters who seemed happy to scapegoat the Irishman.

As a result of the bitter aftermath of the game, the Independent are reporting that ECPR has taken the decision to remove Brace from reffing in France on the weekend of the 20th of December, a move which might have lead to further abuse.

Brace will now take charge of Wasps home game against Montpellier on the weekend of the 20th, instead of the Toulouse versus Exter Chiefs match the same day. It is being reported that the move was made so that Brace could avoid any further abuse by fans on the ground.

The ECPR said today: “Following a virtual meeting of a selection committee chaired by Joel Jutge, EPCR’s Head of Match Officials, it has been decided to make two referee appointment changes for Round 2 of the Heineken Champions Cup.

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“Scotland’s Mike Adamson and Andrew Brace of Ireland will switch matches with Brace taking charge of Wasps v Montpellier in Pool A at the Ricoh Arena on Friday, 18 December while Adamson has been appointed to referee the Toulouse v Exeter Chiefs Pool B fixture at Stade Ernest Wallon on Sunday, 20 December.”

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Let's not sugarcoat it': Former All Black's urgent call to protect eligibility rules

Yep, no one knows what will happen. Thing is I think (this is me arguing a point here not a random debate with this one) they're better off trialing it now in a controlled environment than waiting to open it up in a knee jerk style reaction to a crumbling organtization and team. They can always stop it again.


The principle idea is that why would players leave just because the door is ajar?


BBBR decides to go but is not good enough to retain the jersey after doing it. NZ no longer need to do what I suggest by paying him to get back upto speed. That is solely a concept of a body that needs to do what I call pick and stick wth players. NZR can't hold onto everyone so they have to choose their BBBRs and if that player comes back from a sabbatical under par it's a priority to get him upto speed as fast as possible because half of his competition has been let go overseas because they can't hold onto them all. Changing eligibility removes that dilemma, if a BBBR isn't playing well you can be assured that someone else is (well the idea is that you can be more assured than if you only selected from domestic players).


So if someone decides they want to go overseas, they better do it with an org than is going to help improve them, otherwise theyre still basically as ineligible as if they would have been scorning a NZ Super side that would have given them the best chance to be an All Black.

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