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The Rugby Championship

O'Keeffe gets Springboks as officials announced for Rugby Championship

By Ben Smith

28 days ago

New Zealand referee Ben O'Keeffe (L) delivers a yellow card to South Africa's lock Eben Etzebeth (R) as South Africa's flanker and captain Siya Kolisi (C) looks on during the France 2023 Rugby World Cup quarter-final match between France and South Africa at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, on the outskirts of Paris, on October 15, 2023. (Photo by Thomas SAMSON / AFP) (Photo by THOMAS SAMSON/AFP via Getty Images)

The match officials for the 2025 Rugby Championship have been announced featuring a total of 11 referees from six countries and 330 Tests between them.

Ben O’Keeffe will referee the opening game of the Championship when the Springboks host the Wallabies in Johannesburg, assisted by fellow Kiwi James Doleman and Frenchman Gianluca Gnecchi.

James Doleman will then take the whistle for the second Wallabies vs Springboks clash in Cape Town the following week.

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The much-anticipated Springboks-All Blacks clash at Eden Park will be referred by the experienced Englishmen Karl Dickson, with Assistants Nika Amashukeli of Georgia and Jordan Way of Australia. The TMO will be Australian Brett Cronan.

Georgian referee Amashukeli will take the whistle for the second All Blacks-Springboks Test in Wellington, with Australians Angus Gardner and Jordan Way assistants. Frenchmen Eric Gauzins will take over the TMO duties.

Three assistant referees will make their tournament debuts in Morné Ferreira (South Africa), Sam Grove-White (Scotland) and Angus Mabey (New Zealand), along with one Television Match Official in Andrew Jackson (England).

World Rugby High Performance 15s Match Officials Manager Joël Jutge said: “Our collective focus continues to be on delivering the best match officials for the world’s best tournaments.

“The Rugby Championship 2025 will include some of our most experienced match officials, while at the same time allowing others to gain experience in such a high-level tournament.”

“Unashamedly our goal is ensuring we are fully prepared for Men’s Rugby World Cup 2027 in Australia with the match officials’ team performing to its fullest potential, facilitating an exciting game for players and fans.

“The Rugby Championship represents a major milestone on the journey to Australia for match officials and anticipation is again high for the 2025 tournament as the top talent from Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa do battle for southern hemisphere supremacy.”

The full list of officials is available here.

Comments

22 Comments

JR 26 days ago

Why do we always invite these Northern refs to the Rugby Championship? This idea that they are better is totally rubbish. World Rugby encourages all officials to ‘interpret’ rulings - and it’s obvious that the refs in Northern & Southern comps have varying interpretations.

Southern officials have intentionally made efforts to promote attacking rugby - whereas any game up North still appears dominated by ‘rush’ (offside) defense and jackalling penalties.

If they prefer their own ideas, that’s great - but how about save them for the 6 Nations and EOY tours in their backyard, rather than spoiling the SH’s biggest annual tournament!

Hammer Head 27 days ago

Well at least that’s one guaranteed win for the Boks thanks BOK!

Mitch 27 days ago

Angus Gardner, Luke Pearce and Matt Carley are all better refs than Karl Dickson and yet it’s Dickson who gets the biggest game of the year.

Werner 27 days ago

Agree with Luke and Carly. But No way is Gardner a better ref. He's been unceremoniously pulled from 2 RWCs after botched games. He has a history of bottling big games and had his calls retroactively corrected by WR post games.

IMO he tends to also balance penalty counts between teams as if to give the appearance of a fair and “close thrilling game” but ends up just killing momentum and leading penalty goal shoot outs

tf 27 days ago

I think Luke Pearce is the best English ref around but Karl Dickson always gets the big games. Cant understand it myself.

J Marc 27 days ago

Since 3 years, australian refs are allways sick for South Africa…

Nobody note ?

TokoRFC 27 days ago

Angus and Luke are vying for best refs going around. Nick Berry also really good too, although inclined to the odd strange call.

Jmann 27 days ago

what a pity we couldn’t get SR refs for the Bok clashes. NH refs means a slow pedantic game with lots of stoppages and tmo interference.

JR 26 days ago

Exactly. Our fans are expected to pay to watch a ‘spectacle’ that will likely leave them scratching their heads - as it varies greatly from the product we’ve watched all year!

Werner 27 days ago

It's not interfering of the TMO makes the right call though

tm 27 days ago

Sorry - isn’t Ben O’Keefe a Kiwi who has spent a decade reffing SR?

GrahamVF 27 days ago

It would be the same as having a Namibian or Zimbabwean ref in SA. Too close to home.

Jacque 27 days ago

SR refs? For Internationals????

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