World Rugby refereeing rethink: Head coaches and talent ID roles
World Rugby has announced a new strategy aimed at transforming the landscape of rugby union match officiating worldwide.
Following the approval of a new global calendar and the expansion of the Rugby World Cups, this initiative introduces a structured approach to enhance the quality of officiating across the sport.
While the men’s Emirates World Rugby High Performance Match Officials structure will continue under the leadership of Elite Men’s Match Officials Manager Joël Jutge, two new head coaches are being added.
Brendon Pickerill will take over as Elite Men’s 15s Match Officials head coach, while Joy Neville will take up the equivalent role as Elite Women’s 15s Match Officials head coach.
Phil Davies, serving as the director of rugby, oversees an expanded match officials management group that now includes a new talent identification manager, the aforementioned match official head coaches for men’s and women’s 15s, a women’s pathway manager, and support for officials from emerging nations.
The selection group for this structure will be chaired by World Rugby Executive Board member Brett Robinson, including independent selectors Dave McHugh and Mitch Chapman, along with Jutge, Pickerill, and Davies.
The women’s structure mirrors this approach, led by Elite Women’s Match Officials manager Alhambra Nievas and newly appointed Elite Women’s 15s Match Officials head coach Neville. Su Carty chairs the selection group, which also includes Andrew Macpherson and Wayne Erikson, alongside Nievas, Neville, and Davies.
For sevens, the Elite Sevens Manager Paddy O’Brien is supported by High Performance Sevens Coach Craig Joubert, with John Lacey appointed as Talent Identification Manager for both men’s and women’s 15s.
The strategy also allows for specialist coaching support in areas such as scrum, lineout, performance, and mental well-being, involving experts like Alex Corbisiero and Richie Gray.
World Rugby say that an emphasis is placed on equality within the elite officiating structures for both men and women, ensuring a unified and integrated operation that promotes officials based on merit alone.
To support these objectives, the men’s and women’s officiating selection groups will be organized with independent chairs and selectors from both the northern and southern hemispheres, alongside the respective World Rugby referee managers.
This strategy is set to be implemented across all major elite club competitions, adopting a data-driven performance management approach to ensure consistency in officiating standards, regardless of the competition's location. The aim is to achieve clarity and uniformity across all competitions.
World Rugby Director of Rugby Phil Davies said: “Rugby is a sport built on collaboration and communication, and it is imperative that we have a truly unified, clear and consistent approach across match officiating regardless of country or competition. This is important for officials, players, coaches and fans.
“This new strategy is an evolution, not revolution, but it does for the first time set us up for success, bringing all stakeholders – unions, coaches and players on to the same page regarding on-field focus, while implementing the foundation structures that will support match officials coming through the system and at the top as we accelerate into a new era for the sport.”
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All of these media pundits always miss the obvious whenever they analyse what is ailing or assisting the game. Rugby always has contentious points for debate when picking apart individual games and finding fault with itself. All this focus and scrutiny on “speeding up the game”, “high ball in play” etc is all contextual to the fan. As a tv viewer, if you’re absorbed into a game, regardless if your team is playing or not, more ball in play time and action are all byproducts of the contest. A good contest subliminally affects your memory in selectively remembering all the good aspects. A poor contest and your brain has switched off because its a blowout and the result is never in doubt or it’s a real chore to watch and remain engaged throughout. The URC, Top 14 and English premiership are all competitions that feel like there’s real jeopardy each week. The dominance of Super rugby by NZ teams was unhealthy from a sustainable interest perspective. You can’t fault those teams or the players, but the lack of competitions won by SA and Australian teams long term was always going to test the faith and patience of die-hard and casual fans from those regions. SANZAR took their eye off the fans and fans voted with their feet and subscriptions. They were so concerned about expanding their product they forgot the golden rule about broadcasting live sport. Viewers tune in more when there’s an atmosphere and a true contest. You need to fill stadiums to create one, host unions need to do more to service ticket buyers, and this year proves the other, there’s more interest in Super rugby this year only because more games are competitive with less foregone conclusions. All these micro statistics bandied about, only interest the bean counters and trainspotters.
Go to commentsIt’s a good, timely wake up call for NZ Rugby (seem to be a few of them lately!) - sort out the bureaucratic nonsense at board level. We can’t expect to stay the number one option without keeping fans/players engaged. We’ve obviously been bleeding players to league for years but can’t let the floodgates open (although I think this headline is hyperbolic as it’s a result of a recent Warriors pathways system where they are tracking things more closely) Understand the need to focus boys on rugby if they’re at a proud rugby school too, don’t think it’s harsh at all re Barakat in Hamilton. Reward the committed players with squad positions. An elite 1st XV system in NZ has done more for league than they even realise, think it’s good to protect our game further.
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