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With the likely dominance of the southern hemisphere teams at the business end of the tournament, the IRB have cleverly planned for an abundance of northern hemisphere refs to be available for the quarters, semi-finals and final.
The bets have opened on who will will ref the final.
The 10 refs selected for the RWC 2011:
Barnes, Wayne (RFU), Owens, Nigel (WRU), Walsh, Steve (ARU), Clancy, George (IRFU), Joubert, Craig (SARU), Poite, Romain (FFR), Rolland, Alain (IRFU), Lawrence, Bryce (NZRU), Kaplan, Jonathan (SARU), Pearson, Dave (RFU).
Assistant referees:
Garces, Jerome* (FFR), Pollock, Chris* (NZRU), McDowell, Simon (IRFU), Munro, Vinny (NZRU), Terheege, Stuart (RFU), Hayes, Tim (WRU), Damasco, Carlo (FIR).
TMOs:
Hughes, Graham (RFU), Veldsman, Shaun (SARU) De Santis, Giulio (FIR), Goddard, Matt (ARU).
* = Reserve referees.
The appointments for the 40 Pool matches will not be announced until August. Ireland’s George Clancy, making his rugby World Cup debut, will take charge of the opening match between hosts New Zealand and Tonga at Eden Park on September 9.
Appointments for the knock-out matches will be made following a performance review after the completion of the pool phase when 10 of the 21 match officials will be retained.
Kaplan and Walsh will be officiating at their fourth rugby World Cup (a tournament record), while the referees have taken charge of 287 Tests between them at an average of 28.7 Tests per Referee.
IRB said it was “really exciting to see the likes of George Clancy, Dave Pearson, Romain Poite, Bryce Lawrence and Craig Joubert included within a Rugby World Cup Referee Panel for the first time on merit.”
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.