Wayne Barnes to break Aviva Premiership record this Friday
Wayne Barnes will break the record for most Aviva Premiership Rugby matches refereed on Friday when he takes charge of Worcester Warriors’ home clash with London Irish.
Barnes, 38, currently sits atop the all-time list alongside Chris White on 190 matches refereed in English rugby’s top League, the latter having set the mark between 1997 and 2011.
But at Sixways on Friday Barnes will move out on his own and Premiership Rugby Rugby Director Phil Winstanley offered his and the League’s thanks.
He said: “This weekend Wayne will receive many well-deserved plaudits from across the game and all of these are fully deserved.”
“In the last 15 years Wayne has arguably become the number one referee in world rugby and we’re fortunate to have Wayne plying his trade in the Aviva Premiership each week.”
“He has travelled the world for many years officiating Premiership, European and International rugby yet the quality and level of performance rarely waivers.”
“He’s an extremely consistent performer and has been over many years, and he is held in high regard by players and coaches alike.”
“Whilst he will may soon notch up 191 Premiership Rugby fixtures on Friday night, you can see on match days that he has lost none of retained his enthusiasm over the years and thoroughly enjoys what he does and I’m sure that there are many more appearances to come yet.”
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The weather was dreadful but the playing surface was great so there is no real excuse for such another poor standard of play from both sides. Dragons just the better team. But, what a shocking decision by the TMO not to award the Fifita try. This pretty much sums up Welsh rugby with poor teams and poor officials. The WRU have a lot of work to do and it needs to be done quickly to avoid rugby being lost to our future generations.
Go to commentsNo chance of Borthwick selecting any young talent. He announced his selection policy from the outset with naming a poor OF as Captain, retaining an equally poor Youngs and Vunipola brothers when there were many better EQP in the Premiership. SB revival of Leicester was based on SA muscle and a terrific Welsh flanker he has generally ignored young English talent.
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