‘Third most hated man in New Zealand’ Wayne Barnes to referee All Blacks quarter-final v Ireland

Wayne Barnes has been appointed to referee New Zealand’s World Cup quarter-final against Ireland on Saturday, 16 years after overseeing the All Blacks’ exit at the same stage of the 2007 tournament.

The Englishman has continued a phenomenal career by being selected in his fourth consecutive World Cup. This will be his fourth quarter-final to go with a semi-final in 2015 and two third-place play-offs in 2011 and 2019.

The 44-year-old has taken charge of both New Zealand and Ireland once each over the past month. He was the man in the middle for the All Blacks’ 73-0 thrashing of Uruguay last Thursday and for Ireland’s 59-16 win over Tonga on September 16.

In another bad omen for Ian Foster’s men, the last game Barnes oversaw between the sides was the series decider in Wellington 15 months ago, when Ireland triumphed 32-22.

Back in 2007, in what was his first World Cup knockout game at the age of 28, Barnes received widespread criticism across New Zealand after a 20-18 victory for France over a much-fancied All Blacks side and was subsequently voted ‘third most hated man in New Zealand’ that year. He has since acknowledged a “high-profile mistake” of awarding France a try despite a glaring forward pass from Damien Traille to Frederic Michalak in the build-up.

Meanwhile, Ben O’Keeffe will referee the following day’s tie between South Africa and France, the tournament hosts, which will also be held in Saint-Denis, the venue for both semi-finals and the decider.

Barnes officiated those two nations in their last contest in November in Marseille. Afterwards, following a 30-26 win for France over the Springboks and a series of social media videos posted by Rassie Erasmus, he and his family were subjected to abuse on social media.

Completing the line-up of referees for the last eight, Jaco Peyper is given Wales’ meeting with Argentina and Mathieu Raynal will take charge of England’s game against Fiji. Both of these quarter-finals are scheduled for Marseille’s Stade Velodrome.

Steve Borthwick’s side are unlikely to be too disheartened with their lot given Raynal refereed their 27-10 pool-stage triumph over Argentina last month.

Last week, speaking to The Telegraph Rugby Podcast, former international referee JP Doyle suggested that one of Barnes, O’Keeffe or Peyper would be in a strong position to oversee the final if they are eligible.

“Nationality is always a big thing,” said Doyle. “If New Zealand get there, Ben O’Keeffe won’t do it, and there’s South Africa and England. You’re looking at those three referees but it’s a subjective choice for the people who hold the decisions.

“It could be outside of those three but you would strongly suggest that Wayne Barnes, in his fifth World Cup from 2007 to now, would be the class of the field. He’s shown that and has refereed that way for so many big games and has annoyed probably every nation along the way because he’s done so many big games [and] you can’t keep people happy all the time.

“But people believe he’s class and what’s really interesting is that, as he referees, people in general will believe what he says as fact because they know he’s got the game’s best interests at heart. Other referees who don’t referee in that style, they irk people much quicker because you don’t show the class that the top guys do.”

England seek clearer guidance over breakdown after Samoa confusion

England have called for greater clarity over the officiating of their breakdown battle against Fiji after citing a “confusing” interpretation against Samoa.

French referee Mathieu Raynal will take charge of the quarter-final clash in Marseille having sent off Tom Curry in their opening World Cup win over Argentina.

England came into the tournament having suffered their first ever defeat to Fiji in a 30-22 reverse at Twickenham where they were comprehensively routed at the breakdown. England were posed further problems in the area in their 18-17 victory against Samoa which led head coach Steve Borthwick to question the refereeing interpretation around the ruck.

“After today, I am going to have to get a greater understanding of the interpretations that were applied on the pitch to certain scenarios, we felt there were a few things there that were slightly confusing,” Borthwick told the BBC. “I will get a full understanding in terms of the review of this game, because that is going to be very important next week against Fiji. “They contest the ball on the floor at virtually every breakdown so we need to understand just exactly how that is going to be officiated. It will be an important part of our preparation.”

England have significantly improved their discipline since Borthwick succeeded Eddie Jones as head coach and no team has conceded fewer penalties inside their 22 than England at the World Cup. However, their breakdown discipline remains a work in progress, while attack coach Richard Wiggleworth highlighted Fiji’s laxness at rolling away from the tackle area.

“The breakdown we need to be as clean, as we know. We know that Fiji are exceptional in that area. Being perfectly honest, you learn something different every game because they all referee it slightly differently. That’s human nature. It is going to be slightly different. They want guys to get out of that tackle zone before you can compete.

“Fiji tend to just compete and then work it out from there. They are slowing it down or taking it off you. That’s going to be a huge area of the game that we need to make sure we are at the best we have been because it is definitely a super strength of theirs.”

Raynal is known as a whistle-happy official and England spend hours analysing the tendencies of officials. Flanker Tom Curry says that they have put a particular emphasis on ensuring that they are accurate with their jackalling at the breakdown.

“We’ve just got to make sure we get the ball-lift,” Curry said. “In terms of referees at the moment and what they are seeing, it’s about making sure we get the ball-lift. That’s going to be important.

“The best way to do it is to leave him (Raynal) out of it completely – and that’s by making good decisions, obviously following his trends. It’s ultimately about making good decisions. Who doesn’t want good decisions, whether it’s by a referee or a player? To do that, you’ve got to be dominant physically and you’ve got to be working together – those things come into play so you are not leaving it to someone else’s decision. It’s your decision really.”