Injury delays Australian referee Steve Walsh’s return to Super Rugby
Injury has delayed the return of Australian referee Steve Walsh who was named to conduct a Super Rugby match as an official after the absence of almost one year.
Walsh was relegated after a controversial decision against the Brumbies. Walsh had a daggers drawn ties with Brumbies the then Captain Stephen Hoiles which has been normalised now.
He is the sole Australian official to perform with his whistle during Rugby World Cup kicking off this year in New Zealand. He was also given the responsibilities of guiding a Super Rugby match during the ninth round as Brumbies take on the Queensland Reds
on Sunday. Unfortunately, he has been interrupted by a calf injury today morning and he has to wait a little more for his return to Super Rugby championship.
Walsh has been substituted by New Zealander referee Keith Brown for the Brumbies clash. Another referee Chris Pollock has been struck by leg injury that is likely to be recovered by one week. Both the referee would now conduct the Super Rugby matches from
the next week.
Earlier on, the Brumbies skipper Matt Giteau was fined $A5000 for making irresponsible comments regarding Walsh’s appointment as a referee in their match. Giteau declared the match useless in the presence of Australian umpire Walsh as he had made the Brumbies
suffering during last year’s contest against the Waratahs. The Brumbies were defeated in that clash by Waratahs by 19-12 due his poor judgement which he later accepted.
Later on Giteau took his words back and said it was just a joke and he did not have any objection regarding the appointment of Walsh.
He argued that the relations between them have been normalised since a fair bit of time.
He added, “I've had a talk to him and we get on fine since last year. He came into the Wallaby camp last year and I think he was the ref helping us out just at training with our discipline and things like that. From my point of view it's a clean slate.”
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