Rolland To Referee Murrayfield Tie
Former Leinster and Ireland scrum half Alain Rolland, who refereed the recent World Cup final, is to replace New Zealand’s Paul Honiss as the man in charge of Sunday’s Six Nations encounter between Scotland and France at Murrayfield.
The International Rugby Board has announced that Test referee Paul Honiss has withdrawn from refereeing Sunday’s clash between Scotland and France at Murrayfield.
Honiss, who was a key member of the 2007 World Cup referee panel, has withdrawn due to a serious family illness and is heading back to New Zealand.
Ireland’s very experienced referee Alain Rolland will now take charge of the Murrayfield game. Rolland is one of the world’s top referees having refereed the World Cup final in Paris last October.
The change is a straight referee swap and does not affect the appointments of the other match officials.
Bryce Lawrence (New Zealand) and Taizo Hirabayashi (Japan) remain as the touch judges for the game and England’s Chris White, who was due to take charge of the Ireland-Italy game before injury ruled him, is on television match official duty in Edinburgh.