Murray Kinsella Reports from Paris

WORLD RUGBY HAS confirmed that Wayne Barnes will referee Ireland’s World Cup quarter-final clash with New Zealand on Saturday in Paris.

The highly-experienced Barnes leads an all-English refereeing team for the much-anticipated clash at Stade de France.

Matthew Carley and Christophe Ridley will be Barnes’ assistant referees, while Tom Foley will be on television match official [TMO] duty.

Barnes refereed the deciding Test of last year’s series between Ireland and New Zealand, with Andy Farrell’s men emerging as 32-22 winners on that occasion despite conceding 10 penalties to the Kiwis’ eight.

Andrew Porter was yellow carded for a high tackle on Brodie Retallick in that game. Porter was subsequently cited, but an independent disciplinary panel dismissed that case.

Barnes also refereed Ireland’s win over New Zealand in Dublin in the autumn of 2018. 

His most recent game involving Ireland was their 59-16 pool-stage win over Tonga, while he also refereed their 17-13 World Cup warm-up win against Samoa in August, and was in charge for Ireland’s 32-19 win over France during this year’s Six Nations.

Barnes yellow-carded Uini Atonio for a high tackle on Rob Herring that day in Dublin, but Atonio was later cited and handed a three-match ban, with the disciplinary panel ruling that it should have been a red card during the game. 

Meanwhile, New Zealand’s Ben O’Keeffe will take charge of the France vs. South Africa quarter-final in Paris on Sunday night.

He is part of an all-Kiwi team of match officials with Paul Williams and James Doleman as the assistant refs, and Brendon Pickerill as TMO.

Jaco Peyper of South Africa will be on the whistle for Wales’ quarter-final clash against Argentina in Marseille on Saturday.

Peyper will be supported by England’s Karl Dickson, Italy’s Andrea Piardi, and South African TMO Marius Jonker.

And the meeting between England and Fiji in Marseille on Sunday will be refereed by Mathieu Raynal of France.

Raynal’s team is made up of Australia’s Nic Berry, Frenchman Pierre Brousset, and Welsh TMO Ben Whitehouse.

Irish referee Andrew Brace, assistant referees Chris Busby, and TMOs Joy Neville and Brian MacNeice, are not involved in the quarter-finals.

World Rugby said the quarter-final appointments were “made on merit after a review of the 40 pool phase matches.”

World Rugby’s high performance 15s match officials manager, Joël Jutge, said it was not easy to finalise the quarter-final appointments.

“Congratulations to those appointed,” said Jutge. “It was a very difficult selection as the performance level has been high.

“As a team, the match officials have worked hard to achieve consistency of performance and clarity of decision-making that enables the players to do what they do best.

“There is a strong culture within this group and a strong understanding with the teams owing to the preparation achieved over the last year and beyond. While it is the referees who will get the recognition for the appointments, this is a team game.

“We have an excellent team of referees, assistant referees and TMOs with a strong team ethic for the group to be the best it can be as a whole.”

- This article was updated at 4.19pm to correct an error stating that Wayne Barnes’ most recent game in charge of Ireland was their World Cup warm-up match against Samoa.