Ireland's potentially pivotal Rugby World Cup pool match against France at the Millennium Stadium on Sunday, October 11th, will be refereed by everyone's favourite Welshman, Nigel Owens.
World Rugby released the officiating appointment list and the honour of taking charge of the first game between hosts England and Fiji goes to South African Jaco Peyper.
The opening match for Joe Schmidt's Ireland is against Canada at the Millennium Stadium on Saturday, September 19th and the man with the whistle will be New Zealander Glen Jackson.
South African Craig Joubert, the man who refereed the 2011 World Cup final, will take charge of Ireland's pool match against Romania at Wembley while France's Jerome Garces will preside over the penultimate pool match against Italy at London's Olympic stadium.
Ireland will have two referees at the tournament , George Clancy and John Lacey, and they have been handed three games each at the pool stages. They will also run the lines as assistant referees.
Clancy will be in charge for Samoa v USA, Italy v Canada and Namibia v Georgia matches while Lacey will referee Scotland v Japan, Wales v Fiji and New Zealand v Tonga.
The officials for the knock-out stage of the tournament will be decided when the pools are completed.
REFEREES FOR IRELAND’S WORLD CUP POOL D GAMES
v Canada – Glen Jackson (NZ); v Romania – Craig Joubert (SA); v Italy – Jerome Garces (Fra); v France – Nigel Owens (Wal).
