Wayne Barnes to referee Ireland’s Rugby World Cup quarter-final against All Blacks

England’s Wayne Barnes has been chosen to referee Ireland’s World Cup quarter-final against New Zealand at the Stade de France on Saturday night (8.0, Irish time).

The 44-year-old barrister breaks a World Cup record that he previously shared with Welsh pair Nigel Owens and Derek Bevan and Scotland’s Jim Fleming as he takes charge of a fourth quarter-final match.

This will be the eighth time that Barnes has refereed Ireland during head coach Andy Farrell’s reign. During that time, up to and including last Saturday’s victory over Scotland in Paris, the Irish team has won 34 of 41 Test matches.

The English official is the only referee to twice preside over an Ireland side in the seven defeats. He was in charge when France beat Farrell’s side 35-27 in a Six Nations Championship match at the Stade de France in 2020. The second occasion was in the 2021 Six Nations when Ireland lost 21-16 to Wales at the Principality stadium.

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It’s interesting to note the penalty count in those two defeats. In Paris, Ireland were penalised just seven times as opposed to France’s 14, while the match in Cardiff presented an 11-11 penalty count.

Since those two matches, the first couple of times that he refereed an Irish side under Farrell, Ireland have won the next five matches with Barnes in charge. They beat Scotland (22-5), France (32-19), New Zealand (32-22), Samoa (17-13) and Tonga (59-16). Barnes was in charge of Ireland’s famous Test series winning match against the All Blacks in Wellington in the summer of last year.

In that sequence of wins, Ireland have been penalised more by Barnes in three of the five Tests, reaching double figures on three occasions.

In the win over New Zealand in the third Test, Ireland conceded 10 penalties to their hosts’ eight, against France (2023) it was 8-7 against, in the win over Samoa, Ireland lost the penalty count 10-6, while they conceded 13 penalties in the World Cup pool match against Tonga to the Pacific Islanders’ 16.

Barnes had a bit of World Cup history with the All Blacks dating back to 2007 when he missed a forward pass in the build-up to a French try with France going on to upset the All Blacks.

The English official, noted for a dry sense of humour, later observed in an interview: “I think, perhaps the most high-profile mistake was in 2007 when there was a forward pass in the lead up to a French try against New Zealand. The fallout from that was pretty huge. I think I was voted the third most-hated man in New Zealand that year so it was pretty impressive.”

Barnes was also the referee when an Ireland side coached by Joe Schmidt – now a selector and coach with the All Blacks – beat New Zealand for the first time on Irish soil, a 16-9 win in Dublin (2018).

South Africa’s Jaco Peyper will take charge of the game between Argentina and Wales, Mathieu Raynal will be the man with the whistle for England’s game against Fiji while New Zealander Ben O’Keeffe will preside over the clash of the defending world champions South Africa and tournament hosts France.