Heineken Cup Appointments For Clancy And Lewis

Heineken Cup organisers, ERC, have announced the appointments of Dave Pearson, George Clancy, Nigel Owens and Alan Lewis as the tournament’s quarter-final referees, and also named the number 1 touch judges for the prestigious games.

In a further development of ERC’s match official strategy, Wayne Barnes, Chris White, Romain Poite and Dubliner 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 have 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 Clermont Auvergne under the RDS floodlights on Friday, April 9.

The first of the Saturday matches will be refereed by Limerick man Clancy 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 the Cork-born, Dublin-based Lewis will referee the all-French quarter-final between Toulouse and Stade Francais at Le Stadium on Sunday, April 11.

Meanwhile, Connacht’s Amlin Challenge Cup quarter-final clash with Bourgoin at the Sportsground on Saturday, April 10 will be refereed by Andrew Small of England.

Limerick’s Peter Fitzgibbon, who works as a referee development officer for the IRFU’s Leisure Rugby department, will be the man in the middle for the Toulon v Scarlets quarter-final fixture on the same day.

Clancy, Lewis, Rolland and Fitzgibbon were all on duty during the recent RBS 6 Nations Championship, along with the Larne-born Simon McDowell.

HEINEKEN CUP QUARTER-FINALS:

– All kick-offs local time

Friday, April 9:

LEINSTER v Clermont Auvergne, the RDS, 8pm; Referee: Dave Pearson (England), No. 1 Touch Judge: Wayne Barnes (England) (live Sky Sports/Canal+Sport/Sky Italia/highlights RTE)

Saturday, April 10:

Biarritz Olympique v Ospreys, Estadio Anoeta, 4pm; Referee: George Clancy (Ireland), No. 1 Touch Judge: Chris White (England) (live FR 2/Sky Sports/highlights S4C)

MUNSTER v Northampton Saints, Thomond Park, 5.30pm; Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales), No. 1 Touch Judge: Romain Poite (France) (live Sky Sports/Sport+/Sky Italia/highlights RTE)

Sunday, April 11:

Toulouse v Stade Francais, Le Stadium, 5.30pm; Referee: Alan Lewis (Ireland), No. 1 Touch Judge: Alain Rolland (Ireland) (live FR 2/Sky Sports/Sky Italia)

AMLIN CHALLENGE CUP QUARTER-FINALS:

– All kick-offs local time

Saturday, April 10:

CONNACHT v Bourgoin, the Sportsground, 1pm; Referee: Andrew Small (England) (live Eurosport/Sky Sports)

Toulon v Scarlets, Stade Felix Mayol, 9pm; Referee: Peter Fitzgibbon (Ireland) (live FR 4)

Sunday, April 11:

London Wasps v Gloucester, Adams Park, 2pm; Referee: Christophe Berdos (France) (live Sky Sports)

Newcastle Falcons v Cardiff Blues, Kingston Park Stadium, 3pm; Referee: Jerome Garces (France)

Related Links –

Interested in Refereeing? Click here.