Neville To Referee At Six Nations

IRFU referees Joy Neville, Helen O’Reilly and Sean Gallagher will each take charge of matches in the upcoming 2017 Women’s Six Nations Championship.

World Rugby has announced the match official appointments for this season's Women's Six Nations, which gets underway in February.

Appointments were made by the World Rugby Match Official Selection Committee at its recent meeting and follow a detailed review of all recent performances.

The Championship opener between Scotland and Ireland on Friday, February 3 will be refereed by Aimee Barrett of South Africa with Ireland's Joy Neville taking charge of the last match, on Saturday, March 18 between France and Wales.

Former Ireland Women's number 8 and captain Neville, who made her Six Nations refereeing debut last March, is already having a season to remember, as the first female referee in Ulster Bank League Division 1A and the first female assistant referee in European top tier rugby. She has also been appointed to the referees panel for the HSBC World Rugby Women's Sevens Series.

Women's rugby has enjoyed record growth globally in 2016 and next year will be a huge one for the international game as the Women's Rugby World Cup 2017 takes place in Ireland from August 9 to 26.

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