| Date of birth | January 24, 1970 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Height | 1.57 m (5 ft 2 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Nicola Inwood (born 24 January 1970) is a rugby union referee and former player. She made her debut for New Zealand in 1989. [1] She competed at the 1991 Rugby World Cup. [2]
Inwood began her refereeing career in 1999, her first international match as a referee was between the United States and the Netherlands at the 2002 World Cup. [1] She also refereed at the 2006 and 2010 Women's Rugby World Cup. [3]
In 2007, she made history as the first woman to officiate a Six Nations women's match and the first woman to referee at Twickenham. The match was the curtain-raiser to the men's Six Nations, and was between the same nations, England and Italy. [4]
Inwood has also refereed women's sevens matches in Hong Kong and Wellington. She was selected to the International Rugby Board's first women's referee panel in 2011. [3]
The England national rugby union team represents England in men's international rugby union. They compete in the annual Six Nations Championship with France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. England have won the championship on 29 occasions – winning the Grand Slam 13 times and the Triple Crown 26 times – making them the most successful outright winners in the tournament's history. They are currently the only team from the Northern Hemisphere to win the Rugby World Cup, having won the tournament in 2003, and have been runners-up on three other occasions.
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.
The 2010 Women's Rugby World Cup was the sixth edition of the Women's Rugby World Cup and was held in England. The International Rugby Board Executive Committee selected the host union following a recommendation from the Rugby World Cup Limited board after considering bids from the Rugby Football Union and the German Rugby Union – it had been England's third successive bid after being rejected in 2002 and 2006. The tournament was again being organised by the International Rugby Board (IRB) as opposed to the host union, and included five matches for all teams played on 20, 24, 28 August and 1 and 5 September. In May 2009 it was announced that the semi final, 3rd place play off and final would take place at The Stoop and not Twickenham as had previously been suggested. Pool games were held at the Surrey Sports Park in Guildford.
Nigel Owens, is a Welsh former international rugby union referee, who retired in December 2020 after a 17-year career. He currently holds the world record for the most test matches refereed and is one of five international referees listed as professional within the Welsh Rugby Union, alongside Craig Evans, Adam Jones, Dan Jones, and Ben Whitehouse.
Wayne Barnes is an English international rugby union referee and barrister. He is a regular referee in the English Premiership, and has refereed games in the Heineken Cup and the European Challenge Cup. At international level, Barnes has refereed matches at the Rugby World Cup, the Six Nations, the Rugby Championship and the Pacific Nations Cup competitions.
Kelly Brazier is a New Zealand rugby union player. She plays flyhalf, centre or fullback in New Zealand, Canterbury and Canadian club Edmonton Clansmen RFC.
Sarah Corrigan is an Australian international rugby union referee.
John Paul "JP" Doyle is an Irish rugby union referee. Doyle was one of ten full-time rugby union referees employed by the English Rugby Football Union until his redundancy in August 2020. In 2021, he was a referee in Major League Rugby (MLR) in the United States. In 2022, he was named high performance referee coach by Scottish Rugby Union.
John Lacey is a former Ireland A and Ireland Sevens rugby union international and current rugby union referee. As a player, Lacey spent most of career with Shannon in the All-Ireland League. He also represented Munster. As an international referee he has taken charge of matches in the Six Nations Championship, the Rugby Championship and the Rugby World Cup. He also refereed the 2013 Pro12 Grand Final and the 2015–16 and 2016–17 European Rugby Challenge Cup finals.
Rebecca Mahoney is a former rugby union footballer and referee. She represented New Zealand and Wellington Rugby Football Union. She was a member of the Black Ferns 2006 and 2010 Rugby World Cup winning squads.
Kateryna Volodymyrivna Monzul is a Ukrainian football referee.
Joy Neville is a former Ireland women's rugby union international and a current rugby union referee. As a player, Neville represented Ireland at both the 2006 and 2010 Women's Rugby World Cups. In 2009 Neville captained the first Ireland team to defeat France. In 2013 she was also a member of the first Ireland women's team to win the Six Nations, Grand Slam and Triple Crown titles.
Alhambra Nievas González is a former Spain women's rugby union international and a current rugby union referee. Nievas refereed the women's final at the 2016 Summer Olympics. In 2016 she also served as an assistant referee at a men's international between Tonga and the United States. This saw her become the first woman to officiate in a men's rugby union international. In 2017 Nievas refereed a Rugby Europe Conference match between Finland and Norway. This saw her become the first woman to referee a men's rugby union international in Europe. In 2016 Nievas, along with Rasta Rasivhenge, was jointly named World Rugby Referee of the Year. She is the first women to win the award. She was previously nominated for the award in 2015.
Donna Kennedy is a Scottish rugby union coach and former international player who played for the national team from 1993 to 2010. She was the world's most-capped women's player from 2004 to 2016 and the first Scottish player — woman or man — to reach 100 international caps. As of November 2017, she remains the most-capped player in Scotland with 115 caps.
Amy Perrett is an Australian professional rugby union referee. She has refereed at the Women's Rugby World Cup, including the final in 2014, as well as the Women's Sevens World Series and Summer Olympics.
Hollie Davidson is a professional rugby union referee who is contracted with the Scottish Rugby Union.
Belinda Sharpe née Sleeman is an Australian rugby league referee and former journalist, and is the first woman to referee a first-grade match in the National Rugby League.
Panashe Muzambe is a Scottish professional rugby union player. She is the first black woman to play rugby for Scotland.
Aurélie Groizeleau is a French rugby union referee and former player, who has officiated at international level since 2018. As a player, she made five appearances for the France women's national rugby union team and five appearances for the France women's national rugby sevens team.
Sarah Law is a Scottish rugby player from Penicuik, near Edinburgh. She plays for Scotland and has represented them over fifty times internationally, including at the 2021 Women's Six Nations Championship. Law was the fourth Scottish woman to receive a professional rugby contract from Scotland. She kicked the match-winning penalty in the win against Wales in the 2017 Women's Six Nations Championship to beat the opposing team for the first time in seven years. The win was described a "historic rugby victory" by the Edinburgh Evening News. She repeated the feat under even more pressurised circumstances in 2021 when her 82nd minute conversion of a Chloe Rollie try put Scotland through to the qualification final for the Rugby World Cup at the expense of their opponents Ireland.
