The young referee taking charge of Saturday’s first Test between South Africa and Wales in Pretoria found himself at the centre of one of the most talked about incidents of the year during the Six Nations.
Georgian Nika Amashukeli became the first official from outside the tier one countries to referee a game in the Championship when he was handed the whistle for February’s meeting between Ireland and Italy in Dublin. But it was not to be a straightforward initiation for the 27-year-old.
Just 19 minutes into the game, he was faced with having to make a decision which saw the Aviva Stadium clash descend into a farce. When Italian hooker Epalahame Faiva made contact with the chin of Irish opposite number Dan Sheehan with his shoulder, Amashukeli ruled there were no mitigating factors and issued a red card.
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But that created a problem. Faiva had come on as a replacement for starting No. 2 Gianmarco Lucceshi, who had left the field injured early on. That meant the Azzurri didn’t have a specialist hooker available so the game had to go to uncontested scrums.
However, there was a twist to the tale. To the incredulity of the Italians, Amashukeli declared that they would have to go down to 13 men.
That is because, under World Rugby’s laws, moving to uncontested scrums because of a red card means a team must lose an additional player. The ruling is in place to prevent sides from abusing the laws and going for uncontested scrums whenever they want to. But it is a regulation which many people would not have been aware of, including Italian captain Michele Lamaro, who couldn’t believe what was happening.
However, Amashukeli stuck to his guns, correctly applying the law, with the result being that both winger Pierre Bruno and No. 8 Toa Halafihi had to be sacrificed with prop Ivan Nemer coming on. Italy actually ended the game with just 12 men after flanker Braam Steyn was sin-binned late on, as they went down to a thumping 57-6 defeat.
The bizarre sequence of events left plenty of fans confused and many called for the laws to be changed after the match was essentially turned into a non-contest. Italian international Tommaso Allan was one of those to comment, saying: “What a way to ruin a rugby game…this rule doesn’t make sense.”
But Amashukeli really had no choice at the time and Italy coach Kieran Crowley made a point of springing to his defence, saying: “We can not blame the referee at all, he’s followed the rules. Are they right? Well, that’s for World Rugby to decide.”
Hailing from Tbilisi, the Georgian official had a distinguished playing career at age-grade level, representing his country at U17s, U18s and U19s, having switched to centre from the back row. But, by the age of 20, he had already suffered five concussions, as well as breaking his ankle and sustaining a knee problem, so he decided to retire from playing.
He told Rugby World : “The players liked me, coaches liked me, all was going well. But look, [you get] injuries on injuries. Especially with head injuries, we know how severe they can be and it really affected my preparations, it really affected my mental health at that time. My mother said to me, ‘if you’re not going to die, I’m going to die!’ Those were the words that sort of stroked my mind and I decided to [stop playing].”
Opting to stay in the game by switching to refereeing, he started out taking charge of club matches in Ireland as part of an exchange scheme, with his first appointment being between Old Christians and St Mary’s in the Munster Junior League.
Amashukeli was twice to find himself in the wars amid a couple of highly unusual incidents as his career progressed. In 2016, he was wounded in the leg with a sharp object while taking charge of a Georgian domestic match between Batumi and Army Nika.
Then, during the U20s Six Nations in 2019, he became the first referee ever to be blood-binned. Handling the game between England and Italy in Bedford, he collided with Italian flanker Andrea Chianucci, taking a blow to the eyebrow which opened up a cut. Medics came on to treat him, but decided the wound needed stitches to staunch the bleeding. So off he went to be replaced by one of his assistants, before returning 15 minutes later to finish the match having been stitched up.
His impressive display in that summer’s U20 World Cup in Argentina saw him appointed to European cup matches the following season, while he moved up to be a touch judge at Test level in 2020. He went on to referee his first international in July 2021 when he was the man in the middle for the meeting between Wales and Canada at the Principality Stadium. He was then back in Cardiff in November as an assistant during the Welsh team’s victory over Australia, ahead of his highly eventful Six Nations big day in Dublin.
Amashukeli has been named his country’s best referee seven times since 2013. Talking about his journey since retiring from playing at such a young age, he said: “It wasn’t easy because refereeing at that time wasn’t a prestigious profession in Georgia. It wasn’t in the high end and at that time a lot of people didn’t trust the referee, so it wasn’t an easy decision.
“But it worked out. And throughout my career people have seen that the profession is very prestigious. You get to travel a lot. You get to visit legendary stadiums, work with other referees, high-profile and high-performance players, and all this kind of stuff. So I pretty much raised the bar of this profession in Georgia and I am very happy to see that it can affect other referees as well.”
He now faces perhaps the toughest examination of his career in the intimidating surroundings of a sold-out Loftus Versfeld. His coach and biggest influence David McHugh will have been well-placed to prepare him for the whole experience of refereeing out in the Rainbow Nation. Irishman McHugh was infamously tackled to the ground by a Springboks supporter while taking charge of a game between South Africa and New Zealand in Durban in 2002. He suffered a dislocated shoulder in the unsavoury incident and had to be replaced by Chris White.
Listening to him talk about his playing days, Amashukeli would probably not be a man to mess with out on the pitch. He told Rugby World: “I was a crash-ball centre, but I was more defensive, rather than attacking. I would take any chance to smash your ribs if you were coming towards me! Sometimes I would have problems with referees but I enjoyed the defensive side. I was a tackler. I was always physically big. Even now, as a referee, I am physically big.”
Amashukeli will be supported by assistants Angus Gardner (Australia) and Andrea Piardi (Italy) for the first Test in Pretoria, while Ireland’s Joy Neville will be on TMO duty.
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