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Wayne Barnes to take charge of All Blacks’ quarter-final with Ireland
By Finn Morton
Wayne Barnes will take charge of the All Blacks’ highly anticipated showdown with Ireland with World Rugby confirming the match officials for the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals.
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Barnes has been appointed for a record fourth time at this stage of the sports showpiece event.
New Zealander Ben O’Keeffe will referee the other quarter-final at Stade de France between France and South Africa, while Jaco Peyper and Mathieu Raynal have been named for the two games in Marseille.
Peyper will officiate Wales versus Argentina on Saturday at Stade de Marseille and Raynal will look over the third quarter between England and Fiji.
“I am full of admiration for how the match officials have performed at this Rugby World Cup and the example that they set as ambassadors and guardians of the sport’s values,” World Rugby Chairman Sir Bill Beaumont said.
“They have played their full part in what will be remembered as a compelling pool phase.
“I would like to congratulate Jaco, Wayne, Mathieu and Ben, the assistant referees and TMOs, and we now look forward to four compelling matches on the road to determining who will lift the Webb Ellis Cup at Stade de France on 28 October.”
Referee Barnes will move ahead of Nigel Owens, Jim Fleming and Derek Bevan for the most quarter-finals officiated by a referee. Jaco Peyper is also set for a milestone with the South African set to oversee his 50th Test.
Knockout
11 - 12
Final
6 - 44
SF1
15 - 16
SF2
17 - 29
QF1
24 - 28
QF2
30 - 24
QF3
28 - 29
QF4
The four referees have a combined 263 Test matches of experience between them, although this is the first quarter-final for both O’Keeffe and Raynal.
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“Congratulations to those appointed. It was a very difficult selection as the performance level has been high,” World Rugby High Performance 15s Match Officials Manager Joël Jutge added.
“As a team, the match officials have worked hard to achieve consistency of performance and clarity of decision-making that enables the players to do what they do best.
“There is a strong culture within this group and a strong understanding with the teams owing to the preparation achieved over the last year and beyond.
“While it is the referees who will get the recognition for the appointments, this is a team game. We have an excellent team of referees, assistant referees and TMOs with a strong team ethic for the group to be the best it can be as a whole.”
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Thank goodness he's not the ref for France vs Boks he's head over hills in love with the French actually he identifies as a frog 🐸
Its all looking ominous isn’t it. Roller coaster four years, unprecedented low after low with Foster, worst ever run at a WC bar the games Horowhenua or the Bulls social team would have taken out.
And now the most apt final hammer blow right in the n you t’s…
Barnsey to officiate the burial.
Yep. Agree. What a fitting end. Barnes and his whistle happy over analytic style will help stifle any chance of a flowing game. Hopefully he goes the way of foster after Saturday night. Good luck Ireland- I hope you win the whole bloody thing.
All set up for an all black classic. Seen loads of them
Great news for NZ.
Not at all - could we have a saffa or french referee pls?
Barnes is way better than most. Great to see. Who is the TMO? That’s the wild card as the Saffa is a failed ref looking for glory. Thankfully we can’t have the Irish bloke who is even worse.
Saw somewhere that it will be Marius Jonker
Taking history into consideration, this won’t be good news for the All Blacks.
This man got under the skin of NZ PM at the time Harold Clarke, or was it Helen, I struggle to this day.
You're joke is 16 years old…
I’ve joked as much on another forum - but things have changed a lot since 2007. The scope for use of the TMO has broadened a lot and Barnes has been the standard-setter in how to use TMO effectively.