French officials will exert a dominant influence on the 2019 World Cup. After four of their referees were included in the 12-person panel to taking charge of the 48 matches of the final in Japan. Rugby fans are waiting for thrilling performances in RWC. Now you can book Rugby World Cup Final Tickets to support your favourite players.
Jérôme Garces, Romain Poite, Pascal Gauzere, and Mathieu Raynal played for France in a selection where England, New Zealand and Australia will provide two referees to each.
Furthermore, World Rugby announced a team of 23 referees including 12 referees, seven assistant referees and four television match officials (TMOs) representing nine nations.
They claim that their so-called Team 21 – the 21st tournament team had considerable strength in international arbitration and was selected on merit after a thorough review of performance over the last four international windows:
Team 21 has 804 tests to its credit, whether as a referee, assistant referee or TMO. Barnes and the final referee of the Rugby World Cup 2015, Owens is selected for the fourth consecutive time as a referee, while Pearce, Raynal, O’Keeffe, Berry, and Gardner make their debut with the whistle after impressive performances at Test Arena during the last year.
Bill Beaumont, President of World Rugby, said: “As for players and coaches, the Rugby World Cup represents the peak of a match official’s career and I want to congratulate the team of 12 referees, seven assistant referees and four MTBs who have their hard work, commitment, and dedication to excellence.”
In simple terms, without match officials, there would be no rugby. I’m proud of the leadership position our sport has in terms of mutual respect and shared values between match officials, players and everyone involved in the game.
Referees (12):
Wayne Barnes (England), Luke Pearce (England), Garces (France), Poite (France), Gauzere (France), Raynal (France), Nigel Owens (Wales), Jaco Peyper (South Africa) South), Ben O’Keeffe (New Zealand), Paul Williams (New Zealand), Nic Berry (Australia) and Angus Gardner (Australia) – 457 tests as referees
Assistant referees (7):
Matthew Carley (England, reserve referee), Karl Dickson (England), Andrew Brace (Ireland), Brendon Pickerill (New Zealand), Federico Anselmi (Argentina), Shuhei Kubo (Japan) and Alex Ruiz (La France) – 130 tests as assistant referees
TMO (4):
Graham Hughes (England), Rowan Kitt (England), Ben Skeen (New Zealand) and Marius Jonker (South Africa) – 217 tests as TMO.
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