Nigel Owens, SA's Stuart Berry named on URC ref panel

Former Welsh Test referee Nigel Owens will join South Africa's Stuart Berry on an independent selection panel to help improve the standard of officiating in the United Rugby Championship (URC).

Ireland's George Clancy and Scotland's Neil Paterson will also feature on the panel.

Apart from reviewing the performances of match officials, the panel's job will also be to select an elite group of referees.

URC head of match officials, Tappe Henning, commented on the announcement: 

"We changed the structure a bit on how we review our match officials’ performances," Henning told reporters on Monday.

"In the past, it was done by the five high-performance referees from each union. But now we have a switch for four independent assessors as a selection panel. They are going to do those reviews with me as the chairman of the group.

"By doing this, we have aligned ourselves to the model World Rugby is using to assess international performances. The idea is to bring a fresh pair of eyes and fresh thinking into the mould.

"All four of them are recently retired international referees.

"The aim of that then is to get to an elite group of referees selected on merit and not necessarily on representation from each union, to bring credibility to the match officials we appoint. That's the long-term goal."