Three Irish referees were included on the International Rugby Board list of appointments for next seasons Six Nations championship, it was announced today.
Alan Lewis will officiate when the Italians visit Twickenham on February 22nd, Alain Rolland will be the man in the middle for the Scots visit to London a month later while David McHugh - the ref attacked by a fan in South Africa earlier this year - will run the Scotland Italy clash on March 29th.
Southern hemisphere officials feature heavily on the list with the likes of New Zealanders Paddy O'Brien and Paul Honiss being awarded crunch fixtures. No Scottish officials feature among the referee or touch judge appointments, but Argentinian referee Pablo Deluca and Italian Guilio de Santis have been included.
Ireland's matches will be refereed by Australia's Andrew Cole (v Scotland), Englishmen Steve Landers and Tony Spreadbury (v Wales and Italy) and South Africa's Andre Watson and Jonathan Kaplan (v France and England).
Six Nations 2003 referee appointments:
February 15- Italy v Wales (Joel Jutge, France), England v France (Paul Honiss, New Zealand); February 16- Scotland v Ireland (Andrew Cole, Australia).
February 22- Italy v Ireland (Tony Spreadbury, England), Wales v England (Steve Walsh, New Zealand), February 23 - France v Scotland (Peter Marshall, Australia).
March 8- Ireland v France (Andre Watson, South Africa), Scotland v Wales (Pablo Deluca, Argentina), March 9- England v Italy (Alain Rolland, Ireland).
March 22- Wales v Ireland (Steve Lander, England), England v Scotland (Alan Lewis, Ireland), March 23 - Italy v France (Nigel Williams, Wales).
March 29- France v Wales (Paddy O'Brien, New Zealand), Scotland v Italy (David McHugh, Ireland), March 30- Ireland v England (Jonathan Kaplan, South Africa)