The Portuguese Rugby Federation (FPR) has appointed Paulo Duarte as Technical Director of Refereeing.
Duarte, 34, is Portugal’s most experienced referee, and has been a regular on the World 7s series for a number of years, including the 2020 Olympics. In the XVs game, he refereed his debut test in April 2013 (Bosnia & Herzegovina 19-15 Finland), and more recently looked after Georgia’s home matches in the 2021 Rugby Europe Championship against Russia and Romania. As well as his 7s duties, he was part of the USMLR match officials team as part of their global referee strategy. He has been involved with the organisation and refereeing strategy in Portugal as well.
Speaking to RugbyReferee.net, Paulo commented, “I’ll definitely be doing my best to give dignity to our group of referees, as I try to give back some of what I have been experiencing for the last 10 years. We will be investing in the rights things and in the right people, to hopefully give them some tools to improve the are of refereeing. We already have some great talent, now it’s up to us to give them the right support.”
Congratulations, and good luck with the new role Paulo!