World Rugby has confirmed the 10-strong Emirates Match Official panel for the World Rugby U20 Championship 2025 which kicks off in Italy on 29 June.
The ten referees come from 10 different unions and will gather across the Lombardia and Veneto regions from 29 June-19 July.
Referee selection
The selected referees are: Tomas Bertazza (Argentina), Ben Breakspear (Wales), Griffin Colby (South Africa), Katsuki Furuse (Japan), Peter Martin (Ireland), Marcus Playle (New Zealand), Jérémy Rozier (France), Filippo Russo (Italy), Lex Weiner (USA) and Morgan White (Hong Kong China).
Seven of them will be making their World Rugby U20 Championship debuts, including Katsuki Furuse (pictured above), Morgan White, and Lex Weiner, who all appeared at the World Rugby U20 Trophy 2024 in Scotland – a strong nod to World Rugby’s development pathway for match officials.
ARs & TMOs
The referee group will also conduct assistant referee duties alongside six Italian officials.
Five Television Match Officials complete the panel in Leo Colgan (Ireland), Graham Cooper (Australia), Aled Griffiths (Wales), Quinton Immelman (South Africa) and Dan Jones (RFU) with two of them – Colgan and Immelman – also selected for Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 in England later this year.
Strong pathway
World Rugby Talent ID Manager, and Tournament Referee Manager, Johnny Lacey said, “The selection of this panel highlights the referees that are coming through our pathway system. We have been working closely with our unions and regions to increase the number of match officials in our pathway into World Rugby competitions.
“We are already starting to see the benefits with our talent identification programme providing four referees for this tournament and we are excited to see what the future holds for the officials involved in our men’s and women’s pathways.”
Tournament
England are the defending champions after beating France in the 2024 final in South Africa for a fourth title, while three-time winners France arrive in Italy as U20 Six Nations champions. Six-time champions New Zealand recently won the U20 Rugby Championship crown.
Scotland will re-appear in the U20 Championship for the first time since they were relegated in 2019 in Argentina, having won the World Rugby U20 Trophy on home soil in Edinburgh last year.
Split into three pools of four teams, the winners of each pool and the best runner-up across the three pools will qualify for the semi-finals.
U20 Championships (29 June-19 July, Italy)
Referees: Jeremy Rozier (Fra), Peter Martin (Ire), Tomas Bertazza (Arg), Katsuki Furuse (Jpn),
Morgan White (HKC), Lex Weiner (USA), Ben Breakspear (Wal), Griffin Colby (SA), Filippo Russo (Ita) & Marcus Playle (NZ)
TMOs: Graham Cooper (Aus), Dan Jones (Eng), Quinton Immelman (SA), Leo Colgan (Ire) & Aled Griffiths (Wal)
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