England's Wayne Barnes to officiate Springboks' Rugby World Cup final clash against All Blacks

England's Wayne Barnes will referee South Africa's Rugby World Cup final clash against New Zealand in Paris on Saturday.

He will be assisted by Karl Dickson and Matthew Carley with Tom Foley named as the Television Match Official. All three are from England.

Wayne Barnes has been appointed as the referee for the #RWCFinal for the first time ??#RWC2023 pic.twitter.com/QYLBxcFfkO

Barnes is the most capped referee in the world, and Saturday's final will be his 111th international.

His first came back in 2006 when Fiji played Samoa in Suva.

Interestingly, Barnes will become only the second Englishman to officiate the final.

The first was Ed Morrison, who refereed the 1995 final in South Africa when the Springboks beat the All Blacks 15-12 at Ellis Park thanks to a Joel Stransky drop goal. 

By refereeing the final, Barnes will equal his own record for most matches officiated during a World Cup (6), set in Japan in 2019.

Barnes, who is officiating at his fifth tournament, will set a unique record on Saturday by officiating in his 27th Rugby World Cup match overall.

The bronze final between England and Argentina sees Nic Berry (Australia) taking charge. He will be assisted by Nika Amashukeli (Georgia) and Andrew Brace (Ireland), with Ben Whitehouse (Wales) as the TMO.