Peyper and Kaplan to oversee first week of Super Rugby Finals Series

With the Super Rugby regular season coming to an exciting close in South Africa, the Australian Conference winning Reds and the top wildcard qualifying Crusaders will host the Sharks and the Bulls respectively.

Sanzar Game Manager Lyndon Bray said the appointments were made after a full season analysis of each official, which in turn saw referees rewarded with strong performances throughout the campaign.

“We are delighted to announce that Jaco (Peyper) and Jonathan (Kaplan) will referee the first matches in this season’s Super Rugby Finals Series,” Bray said.

Bray said that the final appointments consider three key criteria -the overall performance, accuracy of the big calls and the ‘right fit for the game’.

“Referees were reviewed against their overall performance, which takes into consideration their consistency over the whole competition, and form at this latter stage of the competition.”

2012 Super Rugby Finals Series
Super Rugby Qualifiers (Week One of SRFS) referee appointments

Saturday 21 July, 2012
Crusaders versus Bulls
AMI Stadium, Christchurch, New Zealand
Kick off (19:35 local time)
R Jaco Peyper
AR Keith Brown
AR Glen Jackson
TMO Garratt Williamson

Saturday 21 July, 2012

Reds versus Sharks

Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane, Australia

Kick off (19:40 local time)

R Jonathan Kaplan

AR Craig Joubert

AR James Leckie

TMO Matt Goddard