ITALIAN REFEREE ANDREA Piardi has been appointed to take charge of the highly-anticipated Champions Cup Round of 16 game between Munster and La Rochelle on Saturday 5 April.
The southern province will take on Ronan O’Gara’s side at Stade Marcel Deflandre with Piardi on the whistle.
Tournament organisers EPCR have also confirmed that France’s Pierre Brousset will referee Leinster’s clash with Harlequins at Croke Park earlier that day.
Englishman Luke Pearce will be in control of Ulster’s visit to Bordeaux on Sunday 6 April.
Ireland’s Andrew Brace will referee the opening game of the Round of 16 when Northampton host Castres on Friday 4 April, with Eoghan Cross and Andrew Cole appointed as his assistants, while assistant ref Chris Busby and TMO Olly Hodges are involved in the Toulon v Saracens clash the following day.
Connacht’s Challenge Cup Round of 16 meeting with Cardiff in Galway on the evening of Saturday 5 April will be refereed by Luc Ramos of France.
TMO Mark Patton is the only Irish official appointed in the first knock-out stage of the Challenge Cup. He will be involved as Montpellier host Gloucester.
For a full list of Champions Cup and Challenge match official appointments, click here.
thank god for that
Estonia please, i wouldnt fancy getting the others
Does this mean that UEFA count us as ‘heavy hitters’? ;) Seriously though, this is great news, I wouldn’t fancy having to play any of those teams with they way we’re playing at the moment.
Wouldn’t write out Estonia though William. They beat N. Ireland 4-1 a few weeks ago. They’d only love to do the same to the South, I’m sure!
Ah yes, the formidable Northern Ireland. One of the top teams in Europe to be sure! ;)
Fingers crossed we can dodge Turkey. We should be able to handle the rest.
Though, we should also be able to put more than 2 past Andorra and not rely on the referee to beat Armenia…
That was the jammyiest game we ever won!