Whistling the biggest fixtures: Craig Joubert will officiate the high-profile match between England and New Zealand
By Alan Dymock
THE IRB has announced their match official appointments for the upcoming November Tests.
With a full schedule for Tier One and Tier Two nations throughout the period, and having concluded a comprehensive study of referee performances through the June Tests and the Rugby Championship, which concluded at the weekend, the IRB have put forward a list of names.
Chairman of the selection committee and IRB Council member for Scotland John Jeffrey said: “As always, we have made these selections based on performance and form. Every match is scrutinised by a performance reviewer and, importantly, by the referee himself. Selections are made by taking a close look at a number of key performances.”
“In considering the appointments, the committee took the view that the selection criteria should be based on a strategy of selecting the current high-level performers underpinned by a growth philosophy towards having the best match official team available for selection for RWC 2015.”
England’s international against Australia (Nov 2)will be overseen by George Clancy, the game against Argentina (Nov 9) will be officiated by Pascal Gauzere and the last game against New Zealand (Nov 16) will be refereed by Craig Joubert.
Blowing up: Nigel Owens gets another big game to oversee
Ireland’s game against Samoa (Nov 9) will be reffed by Steve Walsh, the game against Australia (Nov 16) will be whistled by Chris Pollock and the New Zealand game (Nov 24) will be run by Nigel Owens.
Scotland will be overseen by JP Doyle (v Japan, Nov 9), Jerome Garces (v South Africa, Nov 17) and Jaco Peyper (v Australia, Nov 23) and Wales will see their games against South Africa (Nov 9), Argentina (Nov 16), Tonga (Nov 22) and Australia (Nov 30) will be supervised by Alain Rolland, John Lacey, Mike Fraser of NZRU and Wayne Barnes respectively.
Notably, there are no Scottish referees entrusted with officiating an international match this November, but Marius Mitrea of Italy will oversee Russia versus USA Eagles at Allianz Park, London, on November 23.
You can see a full list of the officials and their assistants for the November Tests here.