Garcès for the Final
Jérôme Garcès of France has been appointed to referee the Final of the 2019 Rugby World Cup between England and South Africa in Yokohama on Saturday, 2 November 2019.
It is the ninth Rugby World Cup final and he is the eighth referee to referee one. At the last final, in 2015, Graces was an assistant referee to Nigel Owens.
The assistants for the 2019 final are Romain Poite of France and Ben O’Keeffe of New Zealand.
Ben Skeen of New Zealand is the TMO. There were four TMOs appointed to the World Cup – two from England, one from South Africa and Skeen of New Zealand. presumably the other three were not eligible because their countries were playing.
The second big match of 2019 is the third-place play-off between New Zealand anbd Wales, to be played at Tokyo Stadium in Friday, 1 November 2019. The referee for that match is Wayne Barnes with Jaco Peyper of South Africa and Pascal Gaüzère of France as his assistants. The TMO is Marius Jonker of South Africa.
Like Garcès, Barnes was an assistant referee in 2015’s final.
World Cup Final Referees
1987: Kerry Fitzgerald
1991: Derek Bevan
1995: Ed Morrison
1999: André Watson
2003: André Watson
2007: Alain Rolland
2011: Craig Joubert
2015: Nigel Owens
2019: Jérôme Garcès
The 2019 Appointments
Third-Place Play-off
New Zealand vs Wales at Tokyo Stadium, Tokyo, Japan
Referee: Wayne Barnes (England)
Assistant referees: Jaco Peyper (South Africa), Pascal Gaüzère (France)
Television match official: Marius Jonker (South Africa)
Rugby World Cup Final
England vs South Africa at the International Stadium, Yokohama, Japan
Referee: Jérôme Garcès (France)
Assistant referees: Romain Poite (France), Ben O’Keeffe (New Zealand)
Television match official: Ben Skeen (New Zealand)
The appointments were made the World Rugby Match Officials Selection Committee of chairman Anthony Buchanan (council member), Joel Jutge, the former Test referee who is European Professional Club Rugby’s manager of referees, Lyndon Bray, the former Test referee who is SANZAAR’s game manager whose portfolio includes refereeing, Nick Mallett, the former Springbok player and coach, (former international coach) and Alain Rolland, who played scrumhalf for Ireland, refereed Test matches including a World Cup final and is now in charge of World Rugby’s referees.
Sir Bill Beaumont, the chairman of World Rugby, said: “This has been one of the great Rugby World Cups, perhaps the greatest and there is significant excitement ahead of what promises to be an exceptional final between two former champions – England and South Africa.
“Our match officials have played their full role in this special tournament and I would like to congratulate Jérôme and the team on their appointments, which are thoroughly deserved. I would like to wish them all the best for what promises to be a very exciting finale to Rugby World Cup 2019.”
