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« on: Tue 31 Oct 2023 19:56 »
With the dust now settling on RWC 2023 I suspect it won’t be long before thoughts turn to 2027, both for the teams and for the officials. I am sure Joel Jutge and his team will be considering the make up of the refereeing panel, not least because there will be more teams and therefore potentially a bigger pool of officials needed.
Just to put a bit of background into this. 8 of the 12 referees from 2019 featured again this year, the only retirees since 2019 being Owens and the 3 Frenchmen Garces, Poite and Gauzere. Of the 4 additional referees, 3 of them featured as assistants in 2019 - Dickson, Carley and Brace. The only complete newbie among the 12 was Amushakeli.
If, and I know it’s a big if and highly unlikely, all 12 were still around and considered good enough in 2027 8 of them would be in their 40s - Barnes 48, Peyper 47, Raynal 46, Dickson 45, Berry, Carley and Gardner all 43 and Williams 42. Of the rest Pearce and Brace would be 39, O’Keefe 38 and Amushakeli 33. By comparison to other years that would constitute a quite elderly, if experienced, panel.
Turning to this years assistants, in 2027 Busby would be 41, Brousset 38, Doleman and Evans 36, Piradi 35, Ridley 34 and Way 32.
And so to my questions -
1. Who do we see from the referee panel retiring before 2027 or being “dropped”?
2. Do we see any of this years assistants pushing on strongly in the next 4 years?
3. Will Piradi become the 1st Italian to referee a 6 Nations game and make the cut for 2027?
4. Is Brousset seen as the natural successor to Raynal?
5. Are there referees not mentioned above who might make a claim between now and 2027? For example I have seen good reports of Tual Trainini from France, who was their referee of the year last year; Ben Blain and Sam Grove-White are doing well in Scotland and may eclipse Adamson. Has Adamson’s chance gone after being overlooked this year or might he bounce back?
I wonder if we may get a feel for World Rugby’s thinking when the 6 Nations appointments are announced. It would be good to see a few new faces being trialed at an early stage, rather than simply falling back on the same old faces
My gut feeling is that if a good number of the 2023 referees were not around in 2027 the panel could look somewhat light weight.
I accept this is all mere speculation for now but I just wondered what some of our more esteemed rugby experts - Alfie, RCG etc - felt might possibly happen in the next 4 years