SANZAR announces referees for 2012 Super Rugby Season – Rugby News
South Africa, New Zealand, Australia Rugby (SANZAR) has announced match officials which will officiate the upcoming Super Rugby season. SANZAR organises the Southern Hemisphere’s premier Rugby
Union tournament, Super Rugby, each year during the first two quarters.
SANZAR has revealed the panel of 10 match referees and 8 reserves for the 2012 Super Rugby season on Friday, November 11. The 10 member panel of referees called as Merit Panel consists of the
top referees from the all the three participating nations.
Speaking on the occasion, SANZAR's referees’ organiser, Lyndon Bray said, “Our aim is for the best referees to be refereeing the most rugby. The Reserve Panel will operate in a similar way
to a rugby team’s reserve bench.”
Brays stressed on the need of reserve referees and termed SANZAR’s approach of utilising backup referees as very important for the development of the referees’ talent pool. He added, “Like
players, referees can suffer from injuries and loss of form. In addition, it is vital that we continue to develop and grow our talent for the future, which cannot be achieved overnight.”
Top five Rugby Union clubs of the Australia, South Africa and New Zealand compete with each other for the Super Rugby title in Super Rugby championship. The panel comprises of the four New
Zealand Rugby Union referees, five South African Rugby Union referees and a single Australian Rugby Union referee.
Steve Walsh is the sole Australian referee in the 10-member referees’ panel. Interestingly, even Walsh was born in New Zealand.
However, in the Reserves panel, Australian has a slightly better representation as the eight member reserves panel comprises of three Australian, 3 New Zealanders and 2 South African players.
The 10-member referees’ panel will officiate 80% of the Super Rugby matches while the remaining 20% of matches will be officiated by the Reserve Panel referees.
The merit and reserves panels announced by SANZAR for 2012 Super Rugby season are given below,
Merit Panel: Keith Brown (New Zealand), Marius Jonker (South Africa), Craig Joubert (South Africa), Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa), Bryce Lawrence (New Zealand), Mark Lawrence (South Africa),
Jaco Peyper (South Africa), Chris Pollock (New Zealand), Steve Walsh (Australia), Garratt Williamson (New Zealand).
Reserve Panel: Stuart Berry (South Africa), Mike Fraser (New Zealand), Angus Gardner (Australia), Glen Jackson (New Zealand), Andrew Lees, (Australia) Ian Smith (Australia), Lourens van der
Merwe (South Africa), Jonathon White (New Zealand).
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