Refs for the Q/F announced

phog

© Getty Images
Heineken cup quarter-final referees
25 March 2010, 5:30 pm

Heineken Cup organisers, ERC, today (Thursday, 25 March) announced the appointments of Dave Pearson, George Clancy, Nigel Owens and Alan Lewis as the tournament's quarter-final referees, and also named the No 1 touch judges for the prestigious games.
In a further development of ERC’s match official strategy, Wayne Barnes, Chris White, Romain Poite and Alain Rolland will not only assume the role of lead touch judge, but they have also been nominated as substitute referees who would take over from the appointed referee in the event of injury.

All four highly-experienced officials will come back into the frame for consideration for both the tournament’s semi-finals and final along with the referees already chosen for the quarter-finals.

In another initiative aimed at providing greater quality and variety of officiating across the Heineken Cup knockout stages, ERC has also decided to combine referees and touch judges from different countries whereas in the past each team of officials was appointed from a single country.

England’s Pearson gets the action underway when defending champions Leinster meet ASM Clermont Auvergne under the RDS floodlights on Friday, 9 April, while the first of the Saturday action will be refereed by Clancy (Ireland) who takes charge of the Biarritz Olympique-Ospreys game in the Spanish city of San Sebastian.

Owens of Wales will handle the clash of two former champions, Munster and Northampton Saints, at Thomond Park, and Lewis (Ireland) will referee the all-French quarter-final between Toulouse and Stade Francais at Le Stadium on Sunday, 11 April.


HEINEKEN CUP 2009/10 QUARTER-FINALS
(All Kick-Offs LOCAL Time)

FRIDAY, 9 APRIL 2010
20.00 Leinster v ASM Clermont Auvergne – RDS (Dublin) – Referee: Dave Pearson (E)No 1 Touch Judge: Wayne Barnes (E) – Sky Sports / Canal+Sport / Sky Italia/ RTE*

SATURDAY, 10 APRIL 2010
16.00 Biarritz Olympique v Ospreys – Estadio Anoeta (San Sebastian) – Referee: George Clancy (I)
No 1 Touch Judge: Chris White (E) – FR 2 / Sky Sports / Sky Italia/ S4C*

17.30 Munster v Northampton Saints – Thomond Park (Limerick) – Referee: Nigel Owens (W), No 1 Touch Judge: Romain Poite (F) – Sky Sports / Sport + / Sky Italia/ RTE*

SUNDAY, 11 APRIL 2010
17.30 Toulouse v Stade Français Paris – Le Stadium (Toulouse) – Referee: Alan Lewis (I), No 1 Touch Judge: Alain Rolland (I) – FR 2 / Sky Sports / Sky Italia

thomond2006

Nigel Owens.

shanagarry

thomond2006 wrote: »

Nigel Owens.

Just keep your fingers crossed that he doesn't get injured!

Robbo

thomond2006 wrote: »

Nigel Owens.

Is it just me or does he get a preternatural number of big Munster games? Anyone care to offer some numbers of this and we'll get a good old conspiracy rolling...

Brian P

thomond2006 wrote: »

Nigel Owens.

Are Munster finally getting a referee who "understands" our game:D

BoarHunter

he got Munster 1/4, 1/2 AND final when they won it. Also Leinster got him 1/4, 1/2 AND final last year .

Also was refereing Ireland-France in Crocker last year with the famous 13 penalties for ireland Vs 2 for France .

I'd Say N Owens LOVES Ireland

At home with Nigel Owens, i'd say it's pretty much in the bag for munster.

I'm pretty certain if Biarritz beat the Ospreys, we will see him again in San Sebastian :mad:

phog

Irish Team V English Team in a knock-out game can only get a French or Welsh ref and Owens is probably the best of the lot at the moment.

irishbucsfan

Interestingly, the Munster touch judge is Poite. So Munster have the most pro-Munster referee whilst having the most anti-Munster ref at the same time!

LFC5Times

Alain Rolland not get a q-final?

phog

LFC5Times wrote: »

Alain Rolland not get a q-final?

A/Ref in the game that Lewis is reffing.

Brian P

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Interestingly, the Munster touch judge is Poite.

Crikey:eek: Does that mean that all our throws will be called crooked? ...or he'll say P.O'Connell is being lifted dangerously high:D