Wales star sin-binned by angry referee after ‘profanity-laden outburst’ towards match official
Gareth Anscombe in action for Gloucester and receiving a yellow card for referee outburst.
Wales fly-half Gareth Anscombe found himself in hot water at the weekend after he was sin-binned for what was described as a “profanity-laden” tirade towards the referee.
The 33-year-old was playing for his new club side, Gloucester, in their Premiership clash with Newcastle Falcons at Kingsholm on Saturday.
Anscombe was in impressive form in the first half as the Cherry and Whites opened up a 26-0 lead at the interval, but he lost his temper early in the second period.
The incident
Despite his team being in a comfortable position, the Wales playmaker became incensed after referee Ian Tempest called that advantage was over from an earlier Newcastle knock-on.
The Falcons had dropped the ball but the official allowed play to continue despite the action taking place well behind where the initial knock-on had happened.
However, once wing Ollie Thorley had made significant inroads into the Falcons rearguard, Tempest decided that Gloucester had benefited enough from the advantage.
Once he did that, Zach Mercer’s pass went to ground, seemingly off the hand of Newcastle’s Sammy Arnold, which would have resulted in a scrum for the hosts.
But according to the referee – it was not captured on the ref mic – Anscombe, who appeared to be angry over Tempest’s handling of the knock-on advantage, then swore at him.
The referee duly took decisive action, blowing his whistle and sternly telling the fly-half to “come here now.”
He continued: “That’s really unacceptable, off you go. Off you go now. What you just said to me. You know exactly what you just said.”
Tempest then explained to Gloucester captain Lewis Ludlow what had happened, saying: “I’ve got a knock-on advantage, I’ve called it over and he’s screamed and sworn at me. Yellow card, off he goes.”
TNT Sports commentator Jamie Lyall called it a “profanity-laden outburst from Gareth Anscombe, and Ian Tempest having absolutely no truck with that.”
Anscombe eventually returned to the field in time for Newcastle to get a score back from Jamie Blamire, but two more tries via Christian Wade and Josh Hathaway earned the Cherry and Whites a dominant 36-7 triumph.
Back in the Wales squad
The Welsh playmaker was replaced late on after not having any further run-ins with the match officials, but he can perhaps count himself fortunate that it was only a yellow card and not a red
If so, the pivot could have been facing a ban, which would have been a blow for Warren Gatland ahead of the Autumn Nations Series.
The 33-year-old is one of two out-and-out fly-halves named in the squad for their November matches against Fiji, Australia and South Africa.
A suspension would have very much made Sam Costelow the front-runner to take the number 10 jersey for their opener against the Flying Fijians.
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