2026 Nations Championship and Nations Cup referees, ARs, TMOs appointed

World Rugby have today announced the match officials for the first phase of the new Nations Championship and Nations Cup this summer.

The Nations Championship is the new international rugby tournament, to be run by Six Nations Rugby and SANZAAR, which pits the top 12 teams against each other – Northern Hemisphere v Southern Hemisphere – in a series of matches which will complete in the November window with a finals weekend at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham.

The Nations Cup brings together 12 nations from rugby’s most dynamic growth markets, competing across the July and November windows in two pools of six teams. The matches will all be hosted across North and South America in Canada, Chile, Uruguay and USA.

All together, it means competitive meaningful rugby for 24 major nations. And that also means opportunities for match officials vying to get themselves into contention for RWC27 or even 2031.

Highlights from the appointments:
– Luke Pearce will referee the first test of the inaugural Nations Championship
– Hollie Davidson will become the third MO this year to reach 50 tests (Carley, Barrett-Theron & Cox), the third female, as well as the first Scottish referee to reach 50
– Sixteen referees from eight nations will take charge of the 18 Nations Championship matches – Ben O’Keeffe (NZ) and Nic Berry (Aus) both have two each.
– Nine referees from seven nations to referee the Nations Cup – seven will referee two matches each with Damián Schneider (Arg) handed three appointments.

Congratulations to all on their appointments

Warm up tests

20 June
South Africa v Barbarians (Gqeberha, S Africa)
Referee: Morné Ferreira (SA)
ARs: Griffin Colby (SA) & Hanru van Rooyen (SA)
TMO: Marius van der Westhuizen (SA)
FPRO: Marius Jonker (SA)

27 June
Japan XV v New Zealand Maori (in Tokyo)
Referee: Sam Grove-White (Sco)
ARs: Katsuki Furuse (Jpn) & ARs: Ibuki Tetsuka (Jpn)
TMO: Koki Yamauchi (Jpn)

Barbarians v Wales (at Allianz Twickenham)
Referee: Anthony Woodthorpe (Eng)
ARs: Alex Thomas & Jamie Parr
TMO: Stuart Terheege