Referees for Junior World Championship
The International Rugby Board has announced the referees for its new competition, the Junior World Championship.
There are ten referees altogether – James Bolabiu (Fiji), Phillip Bosch (South Africa), Peter Fitzgibbon (Ireland), Taizo Hirabayashi (Japan), Tim Hayes (Wales), James Jones (Wales), James Leckie (Australia), Romain Poite (France), Chris Pollock (New Zealand), Andrew Small (England).
The championship takes place in Wales from 6-22 June 2008. There will be 40 matches played at four venues – Cardiff, Newport, Swansea and Wrexham.
This tournament replaces two which the IRB ran before – the Under-21 and Under-19 World Championships.
In announcing the referees, the IRB’s referee manager, Paddy O’Brien, said: “The IRB Junior World Championship is a testing ground for the future stars of world Rugby to showcase their talents in a highly competitive Tournament environment, and the same can be said of the match officials who will be taking charge of the matches in Wales.
“The Tournament, alongside the IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy and IRB Sevens World Series, plays an important developmental role for the IRB’s match officials in terms of preparing them for the Test arena.”
The World Junior Trophy will be played in Chile in April for countries just below those who will play in Wales.
For those selected the tournament represents the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of a number of top referees such as Wayne Barnes, Nigel Owens, Bryce Lawrence, Craig Joubert, Marius Jonker and Christophe Berdos, who have advanced to referee Test matches on the back of their performances at IRB Age Grade Tournaments.
O’Brien said: “The panel selected for the IRB Junior World Championship has an exciting complexion. We feel that all 10 of them are potential Test referees, so it is a huge opportunity for them to perform in front of the selectors.”
Individual match appointments for the pool stages of the Tournament will be made when the match officials arrive in Wales in late May. Performances will then be assessed before appointments for the final rounds are made. A panel of six specialist touch judges will be appointed in due course.
