Garcès
Jérôme Garcès is an elite rugby referee who took charge of the 2019 Rugby World Cup final. Discover his career with RugbyPass, your resident rugby gurus.
Jérôme Garcès Bio
Jérôme Garcès is an elite referee who has officiated some of the world’s greatest clashes. In 2019, he became the first French rugby referee to take charge of the final of the Rugby World Cup. Jérôme Garcès was inducted into the RugbyPass Hall of Fame in 2021.
Born 24 October 1973, Jérôme Garcès became a referee at a young age and quickly rose through the ranks. As a result, by 2009, he had already made his first appearance on the international stage, during the Junior World Championship in Japan.
From here, the rise of Jérôme Garcès was meteoric. The very next year, he began to officiate in test matches. His first international match was between England and the Barbarians in the 2010 mid-year tests, and later in the same year he served as a touch judge in a match between Ireland and Samoa.
Following this, he served as a touch judge in the Calcutta Cup clash between England and Scotland in 2011. However, in the 58th minute, match referee Romain Poite picked up an injury and Jérôme Garcès became the referee for the remainder of the game. Later in the same year, he worked as a touch judge at the 2011 Rugby World Cup.
A year later, he took charge of his first full Six Nations Championship encounter when England played Italy. In 2013, he then refereed matches between British & Irish Lions and club teams during the 2013 Lions tour to Australia.
After this, Jérôme Garcès quickly cemented his position as an elite referee. By 2014, he had begun to referee in incredibly high profile games, including the Cook Cup match between England and Australia. Following the game, both coaches praised his performance and his fitness.
After refereeing Japan’s historic victory over South Africa at the 2015 Rugby World Cup, Jérôme Garcès then refereed the semi-final clash between New Zealand and South Africa. In the 2019 edition of the tournament, he then went one better and refereed the final between England and South Africa.
