Unattached referees for Lions' Tests
The International Rugby Board has decreed that unattached referees would referee the three Tests between the British & Irish Lions and South Africa. That excludes referees from South Africa, England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales.
There had been speculation that the principle of appointing the best referees, as obtains in SANZAR competitions, would be applied in the three Tests and the names of Jonathan Kaplan of South Africa, Nigel Owens of Wales and Alain Rolland of Ireland were bandied about. The decision means that in practice the referees for the Tests will come from France, Australia and/or New Zealand.
The IRB’s match official selection committee’s chairman David Pickering and the IRB’s referee manager Paddy O’Brien met with management from the British & Irish Lions and South Africa teams in Dubai last week.
O’Brien said: “We shared a very positive meeting with management from both teams and discussed the selection criteria for the three Test matches. All agreed that the most appropriate policy is the appointment of neutral referees from within the IRB High Performance Referee Panel.
“It was also agreed that the referee appointments for the seven additional provincial tour matches will be made by the IRB from the Panel regardless of nationality and will be merit-based,.”
The last part of the statement means that the referees for the other tour matches could come from the Four Home Unions and South Africa. That suggests that it may well happen that the Lions will have better referees in their non-Tests than in the Tests!
The IRB Match Official Selection Committee will meet in Dublin on 25-26 April to consider the appointments for the tour as well as the June-September Test matches, including Tri-Nations, Pacific Nations Cup and scheduled tours.
