Like many young Wallabies fans, the first seed of a World Cup dream came for Angus Gardner in the middle of the night.
He was awake, or half-awake at least.
"I remember the 1991 World Cup vividly,” Gardner said.
"Australia played England at Twickenham and it was on at two o’clock in the morning.
"I had my best mate sleep over and my old man got us up at 2 o’clock in the morning or whatever it was and we watched the game.
“So right from a young age, there was that dream and aspiration to be involved at the highest level. It’s a dream come true to be going to a World Cup, to be honest.”
Gardner was a keen footy player but a back injury as a teenager saw him take up refereeing instead, and it’s with a whistle that the 34-year-old will be fulfilling his dream of representing Australia on the main stage of a Rugby World Cup.
Along with ex-Queensland halfback Nic Berry, Gardner was named by World Rugby on Tuesday as one of two Australians on the 12-man refereeing panel for the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan.
World Rugby select the best 12 referees - regardless of where they are from - to officiate the tournament.
You've met the 20 teams who make up the pools at #RWC2019, now meet #Team21 - the match officials who will oversee all 48 fixtures in Japan. pic.twitter.com/aAelhiO5oN
— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup) May 7, 2019
Gardner and Berry being named is a major improvement on Australia’s refereeing representation at the 2015 Rugby World Cup, where there was no Aussie ref selected.
And it’s the first time since 2003 that multiple whistleblowers from Australia will be in action at rugby’s showpiece tournament. In 2007 and 2011, Australia only had one referee selected at each World Cup.
Berry’s rise is remarkable given he only retired from playing due to concussion in 2013, and was turned into a referee in 2015 via a Rugby Australia ex-player pathway program. He refereed his first Test match only last year.
But Gardner’s appointment is far more expected, given the Sydneysider was named the 2018 World Rugby referee of the year, and has now refereed on many of the biggest Six Nations and June/November stages.
Gardner was part of the wider refereeing group at the 2015 Rugby World Cup and did several games as an assistant referee on the sidelines. He made his solo Test debut in 2016.
The experience of being at the 2015 Rugby World Cup was an eye-opener for Gardner and helped make him ready for the cauldron in 2019, he said.
"Where I was in 2015, with my refereeing, I am really glad I went as an AR,” Gardner said.
"If I am honest with myself, I probably wasn’t ready to step out in that environment. I think we can all look back and say we are, at the time, but I think it was actually a blessing in disguise that I went as an AR and was able to get a really good taste of what the tournament was about.
“In 2015 it really opened may eyes to how much scrutiny and how much pressure there is at a World Cup on referees, and teams and coaches and players.
"You only have to look at some referees from 2015 - Craig (Joubert) in the Australia-Scotland game; the amount of media scrutiny he was under as an individual was massive.
"We are under no illusion that we’re stepping into the pinnacle of the game and there is going to be potentially some tough moments for guys.
"I don’t think I had enough battle scars at 2015 to feel like I was ready to step into that environment.”
Gardner said his experiences since as the man in the middle - and occasional time as the man in the media too - had helped him develop a harder shell.
"If you look at the last four years, there’s been some stuff in my referee and I have had games like having to red-card Benjamin Fall in the France-New Zealand series, and the media scrutiny there, and then there was the Owen Farrell tackle (in England-South Africa in 2018)," Gardner said.
"So you become exposed to big moments and big Test matches, and they’re the things you can hopefully fall back on at a World Cup. To say: 'okay I have experience now'."
World Cups are high-pressure environments, and some nation's campaigns can be decided by a single moment; sometimes involving a referee.
Gardner said a referee can’t get caught up in the potential consequence of making a big decision, but simply has to focus on making the right call and explain it as clearly as possible.
"The thing is most of these big decisions, there will always be big debates about them,” Gardner said.
"You have to go in knowing that there will be discussions and maybe mixed opinion, but I think if you articulate why you arrived at the decision, hopefully people will see where you are coming from.”
Gardner has the age-old dilemma for a referee heading to a World Cup, however.
His ultimate accolade would be to referee the World Cup final - the first Aussie since Kerry Fitzgerald in 1987 - but that’d mean the Wallabies weren’t in the decider.
And given referees have the potential to referee any team - bar their own national side at Test level - the Wallabies are the only team Gardner can follow.
"The Wallabies are actually the only team I can support, because I can’t ever ref them,” Gardner says.
"I remember in 2015 I went to some Wallabies games and was proudly cheering on the Wallabies. I think it is one of those dilemnas, and we often get asked it.
"Sure it’d be an amazing experience to ref the World Cup final but a lot has to happen, and the Wallabies wouldn’t be there, which would be really disappointing for rugby in Australia."
