The Springboks will be officiated by six different referees in their Castle Lager Rugby Championship matches in the southern hemisphere spectacle over the next two months, with Luke Pearce of England set to take charge of their opening match of the 2024 campaign against Australia at the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane on Saturday, 10 August.
World Rugby announced the match officials for the tournament – which runs from 10 August to 28 September - on Friday, with the panel featuring 12 referees from seven nations, while Scotland’s Hollie Davidson makes history as the first female match official to appear in the competition since its inception having been handed the assistant referee duties for the Boks’ first two matches against the Wallabies in Brisbane and Perth.
Pearce will be assisted by Paul Williams (New Zealand) and Davidson – who was the first female referee to take charge of a Springbok test against Portugal in Bloemfontein two weeks ago - in the team’s opening match against the Wallabies.
Williams will hold the whistle in the second encounter between the sides at the Optus Stadium in Perth week later, where Pearce and Davidson will be on assistant referee duty.
Andrew Brace (Ireland) and Matt Carley (England) will take charge of the Springboks’ back-to-back home test matches against New Zealand in Johannesburg (31 August) and Cape Town (7 September).
England’s Christophe Ridley, who makes his debut in the competition this season, will officiate the match between the Boks and Argentina in Santiago (21 September), while Ben O'Keeffe (New Zealand) will be the man in the middle in the team’s closing match of the tournament against Los Pumas at the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit (on 28 September).
Back in Brisbane, meanwhile, the Springboks jumped straight into action on Friday withs gym and field training session to prepare for their opening clash against the Wallies, and will build on this start on Saturday before switching into full match mode on Monday.