{"id":454204,"date":"2026-03-02T21:39:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T21:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/454204\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T21:39:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T21:39:10","slug":"middle-east-conflict-impacts-italy-vs-england-six-nations-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/454204\/","title":{"rendered":"Middle East conflict impacts Italy vs England Six Nations clash"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>As a result of the travel disruption caused by the conflict in the Middle East, there has been a change to the team of match officials for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/italy\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Italy<\/a> vs <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/england\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">England<\/a> clash in Rome.<\/p>\n<p>Australian Nic Berry was due to be an assistant referee for the match in Rome but he\u2019s been grounded and will now be replaced by Scotland\u2019s Sam Grove-White.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019ll be the second time Grove-White has been involved in this year\u2019s championship, having run touch in France\u2019s record 54-12 win over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/wales\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Wales<\/a> in Cardiff.<\/p>\n<p>Pierre Brousset of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/france\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">France<\/a> takes on the role of AR1 following Berry\u2019s withdrawal, while Grove-White will act as AR2.<\/p>\n<p>Brousset\u2019s countryman Luc Ramos remains as the match referee and will make his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/six-nations\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Six Nations<\/a> debut in Rome.\u00a0 England are yet to lose with Ramos in the middle, beating <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/japan\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Japan<\/a> 52-17 in June 2024 and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/argentina\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Argentina<\/a> 22-17 last July.<\/p>\n<p>Steve Borthwick\u2019s side are becoming accustomed to match official disruption, having seen Andrea Piardi limp off half an hour into their round three defeat to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/ireland\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ireland<\/a> with a leg muscle injury.<\/p>\n<p>According to rugby historian, James Stafford, it\u2019s the sixth time a referee has been replaced during an England match due to injury, and the first since 2011.<\/p>\n<p>The updated appointments in full for Italy vs England are:<\/p>\n<p>Ref: Luc Ramos (France)<br \/>AR1: Pierre Brousset (France)<br \/>AR2: Sam Grove-White (Scotland)<br \/>TMO: Eric Gauzins (France)<br \/>FPRO: Ben Whitehouse (Wales)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a result of the travel disruption caused by the conflict in the Middle East, there has been&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-454204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}