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Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union or more often just rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in England in the first half of the 19th century. Rugby is simply based on running with the ball in hand. In its most common form, a game is played between two teams of 15 players each, using an oval-shaped ball on a rectangular field called a pitch. The field has H-shaped goalposts at both ends.
The Rugby Championship, formerly known as the Tri Nations Series (1996–2011), is an international rugby union competition contested annually by Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. These are traditionally the four highest ranked national teams in the Southern Hemisphere; the Six Nations is a similar tournament in the Northern Hemisphere.
Steve Walsh is a retired professional rugby union referee from New Zealand. He officiated at international level from 1998 to 2014, and at three Rugby World Cups, including refereeing the semi-final between South Africa and Argentina in 2007. Walsh became the most experienced Super Rugby referee in 2014, passing Jonathan Kaplan's record before retiring from the game in 2015.
Stuart Dickinson is an Australian former Rugby union referee. Dickinson has refereed in many rugby competitions, including the Rugby World Cup, Tri Nations, Six Nations, international friendlies, Super 12/14/15, and Shute Shield. He was a referee at the 1999 Rugby World Cup, the 2003 Rugby World Cup, and the 2007 Rugby World Cup. He is Australia's most-capped referee, and the only Australian referee to appear at three Rugby World Cups.
Marius Jonker is a South African rugby union Television Match Official and former referee. He refereed at the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France, and regularly took charge of Super Rugby and Currie Cup matches. He also acted as a TMO at the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan, and will reprise this role at the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France.
Patric Denis O'Brien, commonly known as Paddy O'Brien, is a New Zealand international rugby union referee, and former head of the International Rugby Board's Referee Board.
James Thomas Leckie is a rugby union referee from Sydney, Australia. Originally a teacher and sportsmaster at Trinity Grammar School, Leckie took up refereeing in 1994 and became a full-time referee in 2007. He was appointed to his first test match in 2006, which was a 2007 Rugby World Cup qualifying match between Hong Kong and Korea. He was appointed to the 2005 IRB Under-19 World Championship final and was introduced on to the 2006 IRB panel of touch judges and TMOs for test matches. James has continued to be include on the IRB panel of assistant referees in subsequent years. He has also refereed the rugby union final at the Commonwealth Games and a final at the Hong Kong Sevens. Leckie is also a regular referee in Super Rugby and in 2009, was named as one of 9 referees from the SANZAR countries, on the merit based panel, who are to take charge of at least 75% of all games. This is so the best 9 referees from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, take charge of the Southern Hemispheres best players and teams.
Craig Paul Joubert is a South African professional rugby union referee and a Referee Talent Development Coach at World Rugby.
The 2010 Tri Nations Series was the 15th annual Tri Nations series between the national rugby union teams of New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.
Francisco Pastrana is a Rugby Union referee who represents the Argentine Rugby Union. Until 2003, he played Fly Half for the famous Hindu Club in Buenos Aires till injuries took their toll and forced him to stop playing in 2003.
Fhatuwani 'Rasta' Rasivhenge is a South African rugby union referee who is a member of the South African Rugby Union (SARU) Premier Panel. He was appointed to referee the final of the rugby sevens tournament at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
The 2014 Super Rugby season is the fourth season of the 15-team format for the Super Rugby competition involving teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. For sponsorship reasons, this competition is known as Asteron Life Super Rugby in Australia, Investec Super Rugby in New Zealand and Vodacom Super Rugby in South Africa. Including its past incarnations as Super 12 and Super 14, this is the 19th season for the Southern Hemisphere's premier transnational club competition. The conference games will take place every weekend from 15 February until 12 July, followed by the finals series, culminating in the grand final on 2 August. The winners of the 2014 Super Rugby Season were the New South Wales Waratahs.
The 2016 Super Rugby season was the 21st season of Super Rugby and the first season featuring an expanded 18-team format. It was also the first season that teams outside Australia, New Zealand and South Africa featured, with the Jaguares from Argentina and the Sunwolves from Japan taking part. This season also saw the return of the Kings, who competed just once before, in the 2013 Super Rugby season. The round-robin games took place every weekend from 26 February to 16 July 2016, followed by the finals series at the end of July and culminating in the final on 6 August.
Angus Gardner is an Australian rugby union professional referee who was appointed to the Super Rugby referees panel in 2012. His first match in Super Rugby was between the Queensland Reds and Melbourne Rebels at Suncorp Stadium in March of that year.
Andrew Lees is an Australian professional rugby union referee. He has been a member of the Super Rugby referees panel from the 2012 season and onwards.
The 2014 Gold Coast Sevens was the first tournament of the 2014-15 Sevens World Series. It was held over the weekend of 11–12 October 2014 at Cbus Super Stadium in Queensland, Australia, and was the twelfth completed edition of the Australian Sevens tournament.
Marius van der Westhuizen is a South African professional rugby union referee, currently on the Premier Panel of the South African Rugby Referees' Association.
Federico Anselmi is a rugby union referee who represents the Argentine Rugby Union (UAR). He also is a referee for Major League Rugby in North America.
Will Houston is an Australian professional rugby union referee. He was appointed to the referees panel for Super Rugby in 2016.
Benjamin Dennis O'Keeffe is a rugby union referee from New Zealand. He currently referees at domestic, Super Rugby and test match level.
References
- 1 2 Hepburn, Steve (12 April 2014). "Rugby: Talented referee O'Brien to make Super 15 debut". SA Rugby Referees. Archived from the original on 22 September 2014. Retrieved 22 September 2014.
- 1 2 "Matt O'Brien". Australian Rugby. Archived from the original on 22 September 2014. Retrieved 22 September 2014.
- ↑ "Matt O'Brien elevated to elite Super Rugby referee squad". Australian Rugby. 1 November 2013. Archived from the original on 4 November 2013. Retrieved 22 September 2014.
- ↑ "Matt O'Brien joins SANZAR Referee Panel for 2014". Australian Rugby. 31 October 2013. Archived from the original on 22 September 2014. Retrieved 22 September 2014.
- ↑ "Gardner and O'Brien appointed to IRB 2014 JWC Fixtures". Australian Rugby. 13 June 2014. Archived from the original on 22 August 2014. Retrieved 22 September 2014.
- ↑ "NZ steal it at the death". iAfrica. 31 January 2016. Archived from the original on 1 February 2016. Retrieved 31 January 2016.
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