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Wayne Barnes to take charge of All Blacks’ quarter-final with Ireland

Referee Wayne Barnes checks a potential misdemeanour on the big screen during the Rugby World Cup France 2023 match between Ireland and Tonga at Stade de la Beaujoire on September 16, 2023 in Nantes, France. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

Wayne Barnes will take charge of the All Blacks’ highly anticipated showdown with Ireland with World Rugby confirming the match officials for the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals.

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Barnes has been appointed for a record fourth time at this stage of the sports showpiece event.

New Zealander Ben O’Keeffe will referee the other quarter-final at Stade de France between France and South Africa, while Jaco Peyper and Mathieu Raynal have been named for the two games in Marseille.

Peyper will officiate Wales versus Argentina on Saturday at Stade de Marseille and Raynal will look over the third quarter between England and Fiji.

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“I am full of admiration for how the match officials have performed at this Rugby World Cup and the example that they set as ambassadors and guardians of the sport’s values,” World Rugby Chairman Sir Bill Beaumont said.

“They have played their full part in what will be remembered as a compelling pool phase.

“I would like to congratulate Jaco, Wayne, Mathieu and Ben, the assistant referees and TMOs, and we now look forward to four compelling matches on the road to determining who will lift the Webb Ellis Cup at Stade de France on 28 October.”

Referee Barnes will move ahead of Nigel Owens, Jim Fleming and Derek Bevan for the most quarter-finals officiated by a referee. Jaco Peyper is also set for a milestone with the South African set to oversee his 50th Test.

Knockout

New Zealand
South Africa
11 - 12
Final
Argentina
New Zealand
6 - 44
SF1
England
South Africa
15 - 16
SF2
Wales
Argentina
17 - 29
QF1
Ireland
New Zealand
24 - 28
QF2
England
Fiji
30 - 24
QF3
France
South Africa
28 - 29
QF4

The four referees have a combined 263 Test matches of experience between them, although this is the first quarter-final for both O’Keeffe and Raynal.

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“Congratulations to those appointed. It was a very difficult selection as the performance level has been high,” World Rugby High Performance 15s Match Officials Manager Joël Jutge added.

“As a team, the match officials have worked hard to achieve consistency of performance and clarity of decision-making that enables the players to do what they do best.

“There is a strong culture within this group and a strong understanding with the teams owing to the preparation achieved over the last year and beyond.

“While it is the referees who will get the recognition for the appointments, this is a team game. We have an excellent team of referees, assistant referees and TMOs with a strong team ethic for the group to be the best it can be as a whole.”

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Comments

23 Comments
C
CT 654 days ago

Thank goodness he's not the ref for France vs Boks he's head over hills in love with the French actually he identifies as a frog 🐸

D
Dr A 654 days ago

Its all looking ominous isn’t it. Roller coaster four years, unprecedented low after low with Foster, worst ever run at a WC bar the games Horowhenua or the Bulls social team would have taken out.


And now the most apt final hammer blow right in the n you t’s…


Barnsey to officiate the burial.

K
Kevin 654 days ago

Yep. Agree. What a fitting end. Barnes and his whistle happy over analytic style will help stifle any chance of a flowing game. Hopefully he goes the way of foster after Saturday night. Good luck Ireland- I hope you win the whole bloody thing.

P
Poe 654 days ago

All set up for an all black classic. Seen loads of them

P
Poe 654 days ago

Great news for NZ.

G
GL 654 days ago

Not at all - could we have a saffa or french referee pls?

d
dk 654 days ago

Barnes is way better than most. Great to see. Who is the TMO? That’s the wild card as the Saffa is a failed ref looking for glory. Thankfully we can’t have the Irish bloke who is even worse.

N
Nigellas 654 days ago

Saw somewhere that it will be Marius Jonker

B
Brendon 654 days ago

Taking history into consideration, this won’t be good news for the All Blacks.

D
Dr A 654 days ago

This man got under the skin of NZ PM at the time Harold Clarke, or was it Helen, I struggle to this day.

P
Poe 654 days ago

You're joke is 16 years old…

P
Poorfour 654 days ago

I’ve joked as much on another forum - but things have changed a lot since 2007. The scope for use of the TMO has broadened a lot and Barnes has been the standard-setter in how to use TMO effectively.

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JW 12 minutes ago
Competing interests and rotated squads: What the 'player welfare summer' is really telling us

Nice, that’s good to hear, I was worried for the tackler and it increasing concussions overall.


My question is still the same, and the important one though. Where the rate of concussions in Fed 2 high? Of course if there where only three concussions, and they were reduced now to one, then there is no need for the new laws etc.


There are two angles to this discussion, mine above about player welfare, and of course the that which you raise, legal responsibility. More, the legal responsibility we are concerned with is what’s happening now.


WR don’t really know much about CTE I wouldn’t think, whether it happens from innocuous things like heading a ball, or from small knocks or big knocks that don’t heal. Right now they are ensuring the backside is clean by implementing laws to rule out any possibility they didn’t do enough. So once they understand the problem more they may realise some things are overboard.


The other legal responsibility is the one you are talking about in France, the past. Did the LNR and WR know about the severity and frequency of CTE in rugby? That is the question in that debate. If they didn’t know then theres nothing they could have done, so there is no worry. Further, what we may have now is a situation where 90% of those court actions might not happen in future thanks to the new framework we already have around HIA and head contact processes. Your English example is only going to be an issue if future players still continue to receive CTE (as that is obviously bad), as it is now, the players have taken on their own responsibility by ignore advice. No doubt some countries, like France and New Zealand, will lower their tackle height, but as long as the union has done an adequate job in advising of the severity of the problem at least the legal shadow over the community game will have gone.

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