FORMER CONNACHT AND Munster scrum-half Frank Murphy is set to make his Pro12 refereeing debut this weekend.
The 32-year-old, who hung up his boots in 2014, will take charge of Sunday’s game between the Newport-Gwent Dragons and Edinburgh at Rodney Parade.
Murphy will become the second man to have both played in and refereed in the Pro12, just beaten to the punch by Mike Adamson who has been appointed for Munster’s game against Treviso on Saturday afternoon.
Murphy finished his career with Connacht after an initial spell with Munster and then two seasons with the Leicester Tigers in the Aviva Premiership.
He then turned his attention to refereeing and has taken charge of games in the British and Irish Cup, the Ulster Bank League and in Schools’ Rugby.
He also refereed an international between Germany and Portugal in the European Nations Cup in February of this year as well as the U20 Six Nations clash between Wales and Italy.
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Fantastic to see ex-players getting involved in reffing and the best of luck to him. Are there no slimmed-down ex-frontrowers out there? They’d still be tossing a coin mind you…
Yeah John, I’m only messing. Best of luck to him. He was close enough to the scrums to see the shenanigans.
His checklist – kit, boots, whistle, cards, coin (for scrum decisions).
Good luck to him. Make the scrum decision easy for yourself and insist on a long bind and a straight push.
Well done , very young too , has good experience as a player ( including English Premiership and Heineken Cup ) . He should be the first player to ref a European final having already played in it …
Easy now, that’s a big step up. Hope he does make it though.
Didn’t say it was gonna happen tomorrow