Refs for Commonwealth Games
The Commonwealth Games will be in Glasgow this year and rugby Sevens will be a part of it. Eight referees have been appointed to the games.
The Games, whose 20th edition this is, will be held in Glasgow from 23 July to 3 August 2014. It will be the fifth time that Sevens have been a part of it.
The games are held every four years since it was first introduced in 1998. The last was in Delhi in 2010 when New Zealand won the Sevens as they have done on all four occasions.
There will be 16 countries taking part , divided into four pools, and altogether there will be 45 matches. The countries are Australia, Canada, Cook Islands, England, Kenya, Malaysia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Scotland, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda and Wales.
The eight referees are all from Commonwealth countries, all with lots of Sevens experience in the IRB's Sevens Series. They are Marius van der Westhuizen (South Africa), Rasta Rasivhenge (South Africa), Anthony Moyes (Australia), Matthew O'Brien (Australia), Nick Briant (New Zealand), James Matthew (Scotland), Ian Tempest (England) and Rhys Thomas (Wales).
IRB high performance Sevens referee manager Paddy O'Brien said: “We have selected a highly experienced team with all having been on the Sevens World Series circuit for at least two years and, in that time, they have refereed dozens of matches each.”
“All eight referees have proved themselves to be comfortable at this level of competition and it will be another opportunity for them to develop ahead of Rugby Sevens’ introduction to the Olympic Games 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.”
