{"id":30012,"date":"2026-08-06T16:17:33","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T11:17:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=30012"},"modified":"2026-08-06T16:17:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T11:17:33","slug":"argentina-flyhalf-suspended-for-4-matches-over-referee-intimidation-in-nations-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=30012","title":{"rendered":"Argentina flyhalf suspended for 4 matches over referee intimidation in Nations Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2026\/08\/05\/Argentina_England_Rugby_797_5_s1440x960.jpg?f72536d07237fdd262042ae8f5e6e6de3b865f3c\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>BRISBANE, Australia \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/argentina\/\">Argentina<\/a> flyhalf <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/tomas-albornoz\/\">Tom\u00e1s Albornoz<\/a> has been suspended for four matches after admitting to misconduct for \u201cintimidatory\u201d interactions with match officials following the Pumas\u2019 Nations Championship rugby loss against <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/england\/\">England<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/england\/\">England<\/a> won 31-24, holding on despite twice being reduced to 13 men. The referee issued seven yellow cards during the July 18 match and both teams were reduced to 13 at stages in the second half at Santiago del Estero, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/argentina\/\">Argentina<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The committee on Wednesday said that contact with referee Angus Gardner, \u201calthough limited in nature, occurred while disputing a match official\u2019s decision and formed part of that overall course of intimidatory conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It also found that Albornoz approached the referee on two separate occasions and had to be restrained by teammates.<\/p>\n<p>Although the offense could carry a six-match suspension, the committee took into account Albornoz\u2019s early acceptance of the charge, private written apologies and his previously clear disciplinary record to reduce the ban to four games.<\/p>\n<p>                        <a name=\"pagebreak\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The suspension will include <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/argentina\/\">Argentina\u2019s<\/a> matches against South Africa at home on Saturday, against Australia on Aug. 29 and Sept. 5, and Albornoz\u2019s Top 14 club Toulon\u2019s game against Stade Rochelais on Sept. 12.<\/p>\n<div class=\"permission\" style=\"padding-top: 25px;\">\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 The Washington Times, LLC.\n                        <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BRISBANE, Australia \u2014 Argentina flyhalf Tom\u00e1s Albornoz has been suspended for four matches after admitting to misconduct for \u201cintimidatory\u201d interactions with match officials following the Pumas\u2019 Nations Championship rugby loss against England last month. England won 31-24, holding on despite twice being reduced to 13 men. The referee issued seven yellow cards during the July&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30013,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2026\/08\/05\/Argentina_England_Rugby_7435__c0-148-3563-2226_s1200x700.jpg?e57cc8b7b371d6ae9ff84a56793904821bc210a3","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}