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World Rugby names Rugby Championship, RWC warm-up match referees
By Liam Heagney
Having last week named its list of 12 referees for Rugby World Cup 2023, World Rugby has now confirmed the match official appointments for the 38 Test and six non-Test preparations matches that will be played in July and August in the lead-up to the tournament in France.
Seventeen officials from nine nations will take charge of the 38 Test fixtures, with all 26 officials named on the Rugby World Cup 2023 panel involved in the preparation window.
Highlights from the list of appointments include:
- Mathieu Raynal (France) will referee four matches in the window with the first – New Zealand versus South Africa on July 15 – his 40th Test in the middle;
- Angus Gardner (Australia) brings up his 40th test with Samoa versus Tonga on August 5;
- Paul Williams (New Zealand) will take charge of his 30th Test with Portugal versus USA on August 12;
- And Hollie Davidson (Scotland) will be an assistant referee for four matches, including England versus Fiji at Twickenham on August 26.
A statement read: “World Rugby has unveiled the Emirates match official appointments for a bumper schedule of international fixtures taking place in July and August, including The Rugby Championship and preparation fixtures for Rugby World Cup 2023. At present, 38 Test fixtures will take place across the globe in a busy period for international rugby.
“The match official appointments reflect World Rugby’s ambitions beyond Rugby World Cup 2023, providing opportunity for match officials who will be in line for selection for the next Rugby World Cup cycles.”
World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont said: “This schedule of international fixtures is the culmination of a lot of collaboration and hard work between our high-performance staff and all our member unions.
“The preparation matches will give fans a foretaste of Rugby World Cup 2023 while providing match officials with great opportunities to perform ahead of rugby’s showcase event.”
- Click here for The Rugby Championship fixtures and match official appointments;
- Click here for the remaining July and August matches and match official appointments.
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Latest Comments
Recent complaints that SA players have a 12-month workload isn't of itself a credible enough excuse to lay at the door of EPCR administrators. If SA clubs want to participate in NH league and club competitions and also participate in SH internationals, then clearly something has to give.
From the EPCR perspective, I do think that the format/schedule issues can be fixed if there's a strong enough desire to remove some of the logistical challenges clubs are facing with these long and frequent trips across the hemispheres.
From the SA player workload perspective however, I'm not sure how players can participate safely and competitively at both the club and international levels. Perhaps - and as Rassie appears to be developing, SA develop a super squad with sufficient player numbers and rotation to allow players to compete across the full 12-month calendar.
Bottom line though, is the geographical isolation is always going to restrict SA's ability to having the best of both worlds.
Go to commentsMoriaty refused to play for wales also he’s injured, France’s is being coy about wales, North in the dark but Sam David and jerad are you joking their not good enough
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