Super Rugby’s organising body Sanzaar have announced a 19-man refereeing team that will officiate throughout the 2017 Super Rugby season.
The panel of officials contains a mix of seasoned professionals, several referees who now have one to two years of Super Rugby behind them and one rookie in former Stormers player Egon Seconds.
The team comprises seven New Zealanders, six South Africans, four Australians and one from Japan and one from Argentina.
“The team is a nice blend of Test and Super Rugby experience and emerging talent and is very settled as we head into another season. The experience in the team comes from Jaco Peyper and Glen Jackson, who have refereed over 50 Super Rugby matches each, while we also have a group around the 30 mark including Angus Gardner, Nick Briant and Mike Fraser,” said SANZAAR Game Manager, Lyndon Bray.
“Interestingly there are four former Super Rugby players in the team, Glen Jackson, Nic Berry, Jamie Nutbrown and Egon Seconds. All of the referees also recently attended a Super Rugby referee camp in Sydney and are well prepared for kick-off later this month.”
“Glen Jackson Angus Gardner, Jaco Peyper and Ben O’Keeffe are also refereeing matches in this year’s Six Nations in Europe that kicked-off on Saturday,” added Bray.
2017 Super Rugby Referee Team
Federico Anselmi (Argentina)
Nic Berry (Australia)
Nick Briant (New Zealand)
Mike Fraser (New Zealand)
Angus Gardner (Australia)
Rohan Hoffmann (Australia)
Will Houston (Australia)
Quinton Immelman (South Africa)
Glen Jackson (New Zealand)
Shuhei Kubo (Japan)
Jamie Nutbrown (New Zealand)
Ben O’Keeffe (new Zealand)
Jaco Peyper (South Africa)
Brendon Pickerill (New Zealand)
Rasta Rasivhenge (South Africa)
Egon Seconds (South Africa)
Marius van der Westhuizen (South Africa)
Jaco van Heerden (South Africa)
Paul Williams (New Zealand)