- Former professional referees become selection and review panel
- Eoghan Cross (Ire), Morne Ferreira (SA) and Federico Vedovelli (Ita) join URC referee panel
- Move to a more fully professional match officials group
- TMO and Referee pairings to be used more frequently
The United Rugby Championship have changed their referee selection process for the 2022 season, bringing in experienced former officials to lead referee reviews, appointments and selection. Nigel Owens (Wal), Stu Berry (SA), Neil Paterson (Sco) and George Clancy (Ire) join URC Head of Match Officials Tappe Henning in the five strong reviewer and selection group.
Speaking at a media call for the BKT United Rugby Championship this week, Henning outlined that the new panel bring an independence, as well as their referee expertise, to the table, as none of them hold any URC referee development role within their respective unions. This removes a possible conflict of interest in the review process where the referee managers, who use to sit on the group, were all in a position to push their own referees, rather than review matches and referees in a neutral way.
In another interesting appointment, former Scotland hooker, and current Romania forwards coach, Stevie Scott (pic right) joins Henning’s team as a dedicated set-piece analyst. He brings international playing and coaching experience to help improve the skills of the referee group, and will be focussed on scrums, lineouts, and lineout-to-maul phases. Scott will be tasked with measuring and increasing accuracy of the referee’s set piece work and decision making, as well as liaise between the match officials group and forwards/scrum coaches.
Henning outlined a desire to bring a professional elite approach to the match officiating panel. The referee panel now stands at 20 with 3 development referees added to panel – Eoghan Cross (Ire), Morne Ferreira (SA) and Federico Vedovelli (Ita) who join the existing line up of officials across all four countries.
Pairings of referees and TMOs will work together throughout the season, with URC referees regularly appointed to the TMO role. By creating regular working, the team becomes closer and helps create greater consistency in the decision-making processes. Expect to see referees doing both roles over a Friday-Sunday weekend.
There is also now a full time URC Match Official Game Analyst who provides game footage to disciplinary processes, support Match Officials in game review & match preparation and collate match data relevant to Match Official performance and game tendencies developing in the URC competition
