2025 Guinness Men’s Six Nations match officials announced

The 2025 Guinness Men’s Six Nations match officials have been announced.

Seven unions will supply the 13 referees for the 15 Championship matches which kick off at the end of January. There’s no surprises in the list, with all the usual names picking up at least one game each for the 2025 championships. France’s Pierre Brousset will hope to make his debut, a year after injury forced him to pull out of attempt one. England’s Karl Dickson and Matthew Carley both have two matches.

Experience

Angus Gardner (Aus) and Ben O’Keeffe (NZ) will both reach 50-test milestones, becoming the first to get to that reach that level in their respective Unions (albeit Steve Walsh Jnr got to 50 via both Aus and then NZ). The referee group has 406 test matches among them all, leading plenty of experience across the referees, ARs and Television Match Officials. Angus Gardner (Australia) and Ben O’Keeffe (New Zealand) will each referee their 50th test matches, taking the number of officials to reach this prestigious milestone to 15. They join Luke Pearce (Eng) in the active 50-test club.

Paul Williams (NZ) will referee the opening match between France and Wales on 31 January – his 40th test in charge – with Matthew Carley (Eng) closing the Championship with France v Scotland.

Debuts

As well as Brousset, there’s also debuts for Sam Grove-White (Sco) – as an assistant referee – and Mike Adamson (Sco), Andrew Jackson (Eng), Richard Kelly (NZ), Tual Trainini (Fra) and Marius van der Westhuizen (SA) as TMOs.

World Rugby Chair and Chair of the Emirates World Rugby Match Officials Selection Committee, Brett Robinson said, “The Guinness Men’s Six Nations represents the pinnacle of international rugby in the northern hemisphere and the officials selected for next year’s edition feature depth of experience and emerging talent. All are at the top of the game.

“Every international window next year represents an opportunity to develop talent depth and strong foundations as we build towards Men’s Rugby World Cup Australia 2027 and beyond to USA 2031. Congratulations all.”

World Rugby High Performance 15s Match Officials Manager Joël Jutge added, “Rugby is a thrilling sport when played and officiated at its best. Collaboration between World Rugby and the teams is important to achieving that goal, and I would like to thank all the coaches and players for buying into an open process of defining the critical few focus areas and ongoing calibration to ensure a fair contest and a great spectacle.”

Social media support

Meanwhile, World Rugby has announced it is continuing its collaboration with Signify to protect all men’s and women’s international match officials from online abuse in 2025. The action-based service has been successful in educating audiences and has resulted in prosecutions, warnings and apologies across multiple jurisdictions.

Guinness Men’s Six Nations 2025 appointments

Round 1: 31 Jan-1 Feb

France v Wales
Referee: Paul Williams (NZ)
ARs: Chris Busby (Ire) & Jordan Way (Aus)
TMO: Brett Cronan (Aus)
FPRO: Damon Murphy (Aus)

Scotland v Italy
Referee: Karl Dickson (Eng)
ARs: Luke Pearce (Eng) & Damian Schneider (Arg)
TMO: Marius Jonker (SA)
FPRO: Marius van der Westhuizen (SA)

Ireland v England
Referee: Ben O’Keeffe (NZ)
ARs: James Doleman (NZ) & Hollie Davidson (Sco)
TMO: Glenn Newman (NZ)
FPRO: Richard Kelly (NZ)

Round 2: 8-9 Feb

Italy v Wales
Referee: Matthew Carley (Eng)
ARs: Paul Williams (NZ) & Sam Grove-White (Sco)
TMO: Eric Gauzins (Fra)
FPRO: Glenn Newman (NZ)

England v France
Referee: Nika Amashukeli (Geo)
ARs: Andrea Piardi (Ita) & Damian Schneider (Arg)
TMO: Marius van der Westhuizen (SA)
FPRO: Marius Jonker (SA)

Scotland v Ireland
Referee: James Doleman (NZ)
ARs: Ben O’Keeffe (NZ) & Pierre Brousset (Fra)
TMO: Richard Kelly (NZ)
FPRO: Andrew Jackson (Eng)

Round 3: 22-23 Feb

Wales v Ireland
Referee: Christophe Ridley (Eng)
ARs: Nika Amashukeli (Geo) & Gianluca Gnecchi (Ita)
TMO: Ian Tempest (Eng)
FPRO: Matteo Liperini (Ita)

England v Scotland
Referee: Pierre Brousset (Fra)
ARs: Andrew Brace (Ire) & Luc Ramos (Fra)
TMO: Tual Trainini (Fra)
FPRO: Quinton Immelman (SA)

Italy v France
Referee: Karl Dickson (Eng)
ARs: Chris Busby (Ire) & Craig Evans (Wal)
TMO: Ben Whitehouse (Wal)
FPRO: Mike Adamson (Sco)

Round 4: 8-9 March

Ireland v France
Referee: Angus Gardner (Aus)
ARs: Matthew Carley (Eng) & Christophe Ridley (Eng)
TMO: Ian Tempest (Eng)
FPRO: Andrew Jackson (Eng)

Scotland v Wales
Referee: Andrea Piardi (Ita)
ARs: Nic Berry (Aus) & Gianluca Gnecchi (Ita)
TMO: Eric Gauzins (Fra)
FPRO: Tual Trainini (Fra)

England v Italy
Referee: Andrew Brace (Ire)
ARs: Craig Evans (Wal) & Luc Ramos (Fra)
TMO: Marius Jonker (SA)
FPRO: Mike Adamson (Sco)

Round 5: 15 March

Italy v Ireland
Referee: Luke Pearce (Eng)
ARs: Angus Gardner (Aus) & Morné Ferreira (SA)
TMO: Andrew Jackson (Eng)
FPRO: Tual Trainini (Fra)

Wales v England
Referee: Nic Berry (Aus)
ARs: Nika Amashukeli (Geo) & Hollie Davidson (Sco)
TMO: Mike Adamson (Sco)
FPRO: Eric Gauzins (Fra)

France v Scotland
Referee: Matthew Carley (Eng)
ARs: Karl Dickson (Eng) & Eoghan Cross (Ire)
TMO: Marius van der Westhuizen (SA)
FPRO: Ian Tempest (Eng)