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The 'three best referees' in the PRO14 to take field in Glasgow final

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Nigel Owens has been appointed to referee the Guinness PRO14 Final between Glasgow Warriors and Leinster Rugby at Glasgow’s Celtic Park this Saturday.

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Owens will be assisted by John Lacey (IRFU) and Mike Adamson (SRU) as he holds the whistle for his 180th appearance in the Championship. Ian Davies (WRU) has been appointed as Television Match Official.

Owens, who is the most experienced official in the Guinness PRO14, takes charge of his sixth decider and will also be refereeing the 13th major final of his career having also been appointed to six European Cup Finals and the 2015 Rugby World Cup Final.

A statement from the PRO14 reads: “The decision to appoint the officials was based primarily on performance and capability. Owens, Lacey and Adamson have been the best-performing match officials during the 2018/19 season with all three taking charge of games in this season’s Guinness PRO14 Final Series.”

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Greg Garner, Elite Referee Manager for PRO14 Rugby, stated: “Early in the year the board of Celtic Rugby gave myself and the union referee managers the backing to ensure we appointed the best match officials for the biggest games of the season and I’m very pleased that our three best referees will be on the pitch at Celtic Park.

“I would like to congratulate all of our primary team. Nigel Owens has tremendous experience and it is a great credit to him to receive a 13th appointment to a major rugby final. Supporting Nigel, we have John Lacey, an international referee since 2010 who has been appointed at World Cup level and will be signing off on his career on one of the biggest occasions after tremendous service to the tournament and the sport.

“I’m particularly satisfied that Mike Adamson has made the selection process easy with the standard of his performances this year. Last weekend Mike was the first Scottish official to referee a knock-out game in the Championship since 2001 and we were really pleased with his handling of Leinster and Munster – a game that was played at Test-match standard.”

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The emergence of a traunch of younger referees was also duly noted.

“Mike’s appointment is a great indication of the younger refereeing talent we have in the Guinness PRO14 along with Andrew Brace, Ben Whitehouse, Dan Jones and Frank Murphy all progressing very well. It’s also a very positive sign for our Scottish match officials, too.”

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TI 2 hours ago
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Rieko took literally years to turn from a defensive liability at 13 into a guy, who’s defensively sound as it befits the position. And it all came at the cost of him being much less of an offensive threat, than what he used to be. Proctor is a natural 13, he handles, passes, and kicks way better than Rieko ever will, he just isn’t as fast.


It’s unfair to judge Tupaea on the handful of games he’s had in 2022 before he got nearly crippled by a Wallaby lock. What could Tupaea/Proctor pairing be, if they got the same amount of chances as Jordie/Rieko?


Because no matter how you spin it, playing a player outside of his natural position is a poor asset management. No matter how talented he is, he still competes against players who had years and years of practice at the position. And if said guy is so talented that he actually CAN compete against specialists, imagine how much better still he could have been, if he had all those years to iron the toothing issues at the position. It just drives me mad.


Two things I hate in rugby union beyond description: aping after league, and playing players outside of their natural position. Especially considering, that they all admit they hate it, when they’re allowed to speak freely. Owen Farrell spent 80% of his international career at 12, saying every time when asked, that he is a 10 and prefers to play at 10. Those players are literally held at a gunpoint: play out of position, or no national jersey for you.

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