PARIS – Welshman Nigel Owens, who took charge of the 2015 final, and England’s Wayne Barnes will officiate in their fourth Rugby World Cup after being named Tuesday among the 12-strong group of referees.
France is the best represented country, with four referees included by World Rugby: Jerome Garces, Romain Poite, Pascal Gauzere and Mathieu Raynal.
Australia and New Zealand each have two representatives in Nic Berry and Angus Gardner, and Paul Williams and Ben O’Keeffe respectively.
The group for the 48-match September 20-November 2 tournament is rounded out by England’s Luke Pearce and South African Jaco Peyper, with the 12 referees having notched up 457 Tests between them.
Rugby World Cup officials
Referees (12):
Wayne Barnes (England), Luke Pearce (England), Jerome Garces (France), Romain Poite (France), Pascal Gauzere (France), Mathieu Raynal (France), Nigel Owens (Wales), Jaco Peyper (South Africa), Ben O’Keeffe (New Zealand), Paul Williams (New Zealand), Nic Berry (Australia), Angus Gardner (Australia).
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/hashtag/RWC2019?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#RWC2019, now meet #Team21- the match officials who will oversee all 48 fixtures in Japan. pic.twitter.com/aAelhiO5oN
— Rugby World Cup (@rugbyworldcup)
Assistant Referees (7):
Matthew Carley (England, reserve referee), Karl Dickson (England), Andrew Brace (Ireland), Brendon Pickerill (New Zealand), Federico Anselmi (Argentina), Shuhei Kubo (Japan), Alex Ruiz (France).
Television match officials (4):
Graham Hughes (England), Rowan Kitt (England), Ben Skeen (New Zealand), Marius Jonker (South Africa).