Brace To Referee Champions Cup Clash

Munster Community Rugby Officer Andrew Brace will referee his first Champions Cup game at the weekend as he takes charge of the Wasps v Zebre clash on Saturday.

Brace is originally from Wales and the former Old Crescent scrum-half took up refereeing with the Munster Association of Referees (MAR) less than four years ago.

Brace refereed in the U20 Six Nations and the World Rugby U20 Championships this year. He has also been the man in the middle for a number of PRO12 fixtures, and refereed last season's All Ireland League Division 1A final between Clontarf and Cork Constitution.

IRFU international referees John Lacey and George Clancy are also busy this weekend as Lacey takes charge of Toulon v Saracens and Clancy officiates Exeter Chiefs v Clermont Auvergne.

The pair will also referee Test matches in Scotland and Italy next month.

Lacey will be on duty at Scotland v Australia in Edinburgh on Saturday, November 12. His second refereeing appointment is Italy v Tonga two weeks later in Padova, with Clancy having the whistle for Italy v South Africa in Florence on Saturday, November 19.

The Munster pair also have some assistant referee appointments across the November internationals, as do fellow IRFU match officials David Wilkinson, Dudley Phillips, Andrew Brace and Gary Conway. Peter Fitzgibbon and Simon McDowell will both be on TMO duty.

The MAR are always on the look-out for new referees. The next Referees Course takes place in January 2017, contact Referee Development Manager Peter Fitzgibbon for more details on peter.fitzgibbon@irfu.ie.