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Romain Poite to referee his final Test match this weekend
By Kim Ekin
Romain Poite is set to referee his final international match this weekend - World Rugby have confirmed this morning.
The popular Frenchman takes charge of Scotland versus Australia at Murrayfield, bringing the curtain down on a career that has seen him oversee 72 Test matches. The 46-year-old, who made his debut in 2006, is third on the all-time list of test match appearances behind Nigel Owens (100) and Wayne Barnes (96).
A former police officer, Poite will be remembered for his unique approach to refereeing and his often inadvertently funny style of interacting with players on the pitch.
Poite has featured at every Rugby World Cup since New Zealand 2011 and has taken charge of multiple European and domestic finals during an illustrious international career that began with Morocco versus Namibia in a Rugby World Cup 2007 qualifier.
World Rugby Vice-Chairman Bernard Laporte said: “On behalf of World Rugby I would like to express my gratitude to Romain Poite. To serve as a test rugby referee for more than 15 years is not easy. He has always been dedicated to being the best he can be on the field, while being a committed and valued team player away from the match. I would like to wish him all the best.”
World Rugby High Performance 15s Match Officials Manager Joël Jutge added: “Romain has been a dedicated and popular member of the World Rugby match officials team for more than 15 years and a superb servant to international match officiating. I would like to wish him all the best as he embarks on a new chapter in his life and thank him for his contribution, both as a match official and mentor to young international referees.”
It's not the end of Poite as a referee, as he will continue to officiate at a domestic level in France and at European level.
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Latest Comments
The boy needs to bulk up if wants to play 10 or 11 to handle those hits, otherwise he could always make a brilliant reserve for the wings if he stays away from the stretcher.
Go to commentsIn another recent article I tried to argue for a few key concept changes for EPCR which I think could light the game up in the North.
First, I can't remember who pointed out the obvious elephant in the room (a SA'n poster?), it's a terrible time to play rugby in the NH, and especially your pinnacle tournament. It's been terrible watching with seemingly all the games I wanted to watch being in the dark, hardly able to see what was going on. The Aviva was the only stadium I saw that had lights that could handle the miserable rain. If the global appeal is there, they could do a lot better having day games.
They other primary idea I thuoght would benefit EPCR most, was more content. The Prem could do with it and the Top14 could do with something more important than their own league, so they aren't under so much pressure to sell games. The quality over quantity approach.
Trim it down to two 16 team EPCR competitions, and introduce a third for playing amongst the T2 sides, or the bottom clubs in each league should simply be working on being better during the EPCR.
Champions Cup is made up of league best 15 teams, + 1, the Challenge Cup winner. Without a reason not to, I'd distribute it evenly based on each leauge, dividing into thirds and rounded up, 6 URC 5 Top14 4 English. Each winner (all four) is #1 rank and I'd have a seeding round or two for the other 12 to determine their own brackets for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I'd then hold a 6 game pool, home and away, with consecutive of each for those games that involve SA'n teams. Preferrably I'd have a regional thing were all SA'n teams were in the same pool but that's a bit complex for this simple idea.
That pool round further finalises the seeding for knockout round of 16. So #1 pool has essentially duked it out for finals seeding already (better venue planning), and to see who they go up against 16, 15,etc etc. Actually I think I might prefer a single pool round for seeding, and introduce the home and away for Ro16, quarters, and semis (stuffs up venue hire). General idea to produce the most competitive matches possible until the random knockout phase, and fix the random lottery of which two teams get ranked higher after pool play, and also keep the system identical for the Challenge Cup so everthing is succinct. Top T2 side promoted from last year to make 16 in Challenge Cup
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