SA match officials named on RWC panel
Two of South Africa’s elite referees, Craig Joubert and Jaco Peyper, have been named in an experienced 12-man referee panel to officiate at the Rugby World Cup in England, while Stuart Berry and Shaun Veldsman were named as assistant referee and Television Match Official (TMO) respectively.
Joubert became the second South African referee (SARU’s General Manager of Referee’s, André Watson, being the first) to take charge of a Rugby World Cup final in the 2011 tournament in which New Zealand defeated France to win the William Webb Ellis Cup. He also officiated the 2011 World Cup semifinal between New Zealand and Australia.
The referee panel is made up of three French referees, two each from New Zealand, South Africa, England and Ireland, and one from Wales. Seven of the referees also took charge of matches in the 2011 World Cup.
The other referees named were France’s Jérôme Garcès, Romain Poite and Pascal Gauzere, New Zealand’s Glen Jackson and Chris Pollock, England’s Wayne Barnes and JP Doyle, Ireland’s George Clancy and John Lacey, and Nigel Owens from Wales.
Berry, meanwhile, was named alongside Federico Anselmi (Argentina), Mike Fraser (New Zealand), Angus Gardner (Australia), Leighton Hodges (Wales) Marius Mitrea (Italy) and Mathieu Raynal (France) on the assistant referee panel.
Veldsman, George Ayoub (Australia), Graham Hughes (England) and Ben Skeen (New Zealand) were named as the TMOs.
The selection was made after a comprehensive review of refereeing performances by the World Rugby Match Official Selection Committee.
Chairman of the selection panel John Jeffrey said: “I want to congratulate all 12 referees, the seven ARs and four TMOs, who through very hard work and determination, have made it onto the panel for this year’s Rugby World Cup.
“Since Rugby World Cup 2011, we have been focused on developing a strong panel that can preside over the 48 matches at this year’s tournament. The fact that seven of the referee panel were involved in the 2011 tournament points to the big-match experience that they hold. Indeed, between the 12 of them, they have refereed no fewer than 361 internationals.
“The five referees who were not at RWC 2011 have done very well to progress through their own pathways, in SANZAR, in Europe and from the World Rugby U20 Championship, to make it to the biggest stage of all. The focus for all these match officials at this point is on consistency and performing at the highest level.”
The individual match appointments will be announced in due course.
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