Jaco Peyper was born on 13 May 1980 in South Africa.

He made his refereeing debut in Super Rugby in 2008 but took charge of his first Test match in 2011.

Peyper is about the referee in his third World Cup at the 2023 edition. He took charge of matches in the 2015 and 2019 tournaments. In the 2019 tournament he sent France’s Sébastien Vahaamahina off for an elbow in a quarter-final against Wales. Peyper was pictured after the match posing with Welsh fans with an elbow and he wasn’t considered to ref the semi-finals.

He is a trained lawyer.

Peyper and his wife, Zenobia, share two daughters together.

He refereed a British & Irish Lions Test in their 2017 tour of New Zealand.

Peyper’s comments during the 2021 Currie Cup final went viral. Scrum-half Jaden Hendriske challenged a call the referee made during the match to which Peyper said: “You’ve got a lot of advice for your first Currie Cup (final)”.

What have players said about him?

Dan Biggar jested ahead of the 2022 Six Nations that Peyper would have “sleepless nights” over having to ref him and Ireland’s Johnny Sexton. Wales vs Ireland’s fixture is the first match of the tournament. He told the Rugby Union Weekly podcast. “For the first game Jaco Peyper has got me and him so I bet he’s having sleepless nights!

“(In all seriousness) it will be a challenge because my nature is very fiery and competitive. It is kind of a double-edged sword. For me, as a player, I need to be at a level where I am emotionally on edge but obviously there has to be a line.

“I’m really looking forward to testing myself. Only time will tell if it will come across right but I’m going to fly into it the best I can.”

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