World Rugby Chair Brett Robinson has led the tributes to England’s Sara Cox, who today announced her retirement from refereeing on the international stage. A pioneer for female match officials, Cox was the world’s first professional female referee, is the only female referee to take charge of 50 tests and was awarded an MBE for
Hollie Davidson to create history as first female to referee a Men’s Six Nations match Referees from eight national unions selected across the 15 matches Matthew Carley set to reach 50 test appearances in the middle The Emirates World Rugby Match Officials have been confirmed for the Guinness Men’s Six Nations 2026. Fourteen referees
A round-up of referees Let me first warmly recommend an illuminating podcast between Keith Lewis, founder of rugbyreferee.net and Laws Co-ordinator for World Rugby (no less) and Natarsha Ganley (NZ), who was one of the referees officiating at the RWC in England. It’s Episode 45. She recounts how she started out, climbed the officiating tree
The officials tend to be the people overlooked, until they stand accused of making an ‘obvious’ error. The fact is, they have been training assiduously, mostly at Faro in Portugal. The skills they need vary widely. Take for example what the onfield assessment involves: application of the laws; match control; fitness, agility, positioning and work-rate;
A long series of warm-up games for the World Cup means World Rugby’s referees’ committee has been hard at work. While you will see plenty of familiar names in the lists below, it’s fascinating to note how the committee grades its officials. Naturally enough, the bigger the game, the bigger the name. There are further
A revamped regional referee squad programme has been announced today, featuring 82 of the country’s top and emerging referees split across five regional squads. The announcement of the squads is in line with the launch of the High Performance Referee strategy and the 2025 community referee framework. New Zealand Rugby’s High Performance Referee Manager, Chris
A new-look development referee programme has been introduced in 2024 and features more than 70 of the country’s leading referees. The programme sees the traditional High Performance squad disbanded in favour of a regional model which will allow more referees the exposure to development and training. Split along Super Rugby regional lines, the five squads
I’m back to a favourite topic of mine, the unfairness of language in rugby. It takes a different slant this time. I concentrate solely on the eighteen referees designated to cover the three levels of the WXV (full list below). First, congratulations to all of them. The referees’ assessment board goes to inordinate lengths to
The FA can confirm the 2023 Vitality Women’s FA Cup match officials who will oversee this year’s Final, while also confirming that VAR will be used for the very first time in the competition. Suffolk-based official Emily Heaslip will lead a team including assistant referees Georgia Ball and Chloe-Ann Small, with Abigail Byrne as fourth
Aimee Barrett-Theron (South Africa) and Joy Neville (Ireland) will take charge of the Rugby World Cup 2021 semi-finals at Eden Park this weekend. World Rugby has today confirmed that Aimee Barrett-Theron (South Africa) and Joy Neville (Ireland) will take charge of the Rugby World Cup 2021 semi-finals at Eden Park this weekend. It will be
Social Networks