Referees for Chile

Chile will host the first International Rugby Board Junior World Rugby Trophy from 15-27 April 2008, and the IRB has announced the referees for the tournament.

The referees are Salvador Encinas (Chile), Haykel Bahroun (Tunisia), Ucha Narmianidze (Georgia), Gustavo Gerbasi (Uruguay), Horatiu Bargaunas (Romania), Javier Mancuso (Argentina), Marcin Zeszutek (Poland)

Specialist touch judge: Jaime Vial (Chile)

Tournament Referee Manager: Bernd Gabbei (Germany)

The teams taking part are Chile, Cook Islands, Georgia, Jamaica, Korea, Namibia, Romania, Uruguay.

The tournament will be held in Santiago, the capital of Chile.

Announcing the list of chosen referees, the IRB's referee manager, Paddy O'Brien said: “The IRB Junior World Rugby Trophy provides an opportunity for the future stars of world Rugby to prove themselves in highly competitive Tournament environment, and the same can be said of the match official.

“The tournament, coupled with the IRB Junior World Championship, plays a key developmental role for the officials selected in terms of preparation for the Test arena. Those selected will be looking to follow in the footsteps of a number of top referees such as Wayne Barnes, Peter Fitzgibbon, Andrew McPherson and Federico Cuesta who have advanced to referee Test matches on the back of their performances in Age Grade tournaments."

Individual match appointments for the pool stages of the Tournament will be made when the match officials arrive in Santiago in April. Performances will then be assessed before appointments for the final round are made.