The four referees who will take charge of Scotland at the Rugby World Cup

Gregor Townsend has praised the standard of refereeing at Test level after the match officials for the Rugby World Cup pool stage were announced.

Australian referee Nic Berry will take charge of Scotland's final Pool B match against Ireland at the Rugby World Cup. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Angus Gardner of Australia will take charge of Scotland’s opener against South Africa in Marseille on September 10 and be assisted by compatriot Jordan Way and Georgia’s Nika Amashukeli, with Wales’ Ben Whitehouse as TMO. It’s Gardner’s second World Cup. Scotland’s game against Tonga in Nice a fortnight later will be refereed by the RFU’s Karl Dickson. Amashukeli will run the line with Wales’ Craig Evans. Whitehouse will again be TMO.

Another English ref, Wayne Barnes, will be the man in the middle for Scotland v Romania in Lille on September 30. His assistants will be IRFU pair Andrew Brace and Chris Busby, with New Zealand’s Brendon Pickerill as TMO. Scotland’s final match in Pool B, against Ireland in Paris on October 7, will be refereed by Australia’s Nic Berry, who recently took charge of France v Scotland in Saint-Etienne. The assistants will be Barnes and Way, with Aussie Brett Cronan as TMO.

“It’s the top referees in the world,” said Townsend, the Scotland coach. “I think the standard of refereeing is so high right now, it’s brilliant that’s there consistency from country to country, hemisphere to hemisphere in how they see the game, which hasn’t always been the case. We feel that when we go into a game, you don’t have to analyse the referees as much as you used to do. In the past it was, ‘this referee favours the defence’ or ‘this referee has a certain trait because referees from that country like to do that’. Not now.”