Referees for the 1995 Rugby World Cup

The 26 referees for the 1995 Rugby World Cup were (with previous world cup selections indicated):

Argentina: Efraim Jorge Sklar (1991)
Australia: Wayne Erickson and Barry Leask
Canada: George Gadjovich
Cote D'Ivoire: Koffi Degni Seraphin
England: Steve Lander and Ed Morrison (1991)
France: Joel Dume and Patrick Robin (1991)
Ireland: Stephen Hilditch (1991) and David McHugh
Italy: Claudio Giacomel
Japan: Naoki Saito (1991)
Korea: Han Moon Soo
New Zealand: David Bishop (1987, 1991) and Colin Hawke
Romania: Niculae Chiciu
Scotland: Jim M Fleming (1987, 1991) and Ken W McCartney
South Africa: Ian Rogers and Stef Neethling
Spain: Inaki Atorrasagasti
Tonga: 'Etoni Tonga
Wales: Derek Bevan (1987, 1991) and Clayton Thomas
Western Samoa: Felise Vito (1991)

The arrangements for choosing referees were:

The 8 founding unions of the IRFB all provide 1 referee,
A further 9 are nominated by the seeded countries (7 of which are founder members)
The 7 qualifiers provide 1 each.
Plus 2 two nominated from non-participating unions based on assessment of referees used in the qualifying tournaments. (In the '91 world cup Belgium's Danny Roelands was selected but only got to run touch)

(This is a different scheme to that used in the last WC.)

So this resulted in:

2 each from (as founders AND seeds)- England, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, France, Scotland and South Africa.
2 from Wales (as founders AND qualifiers)
1 from Canada and Western Samoa (as seeds)
1 from Italy, Romania, Tonga, Argentina, Ivory Coast, Japan
Plus the 2 selected by the RWC referee assessment panel.

Referees retained for the knockout stages

After the pool games, the above list of referees was whittled down to 14. These were:

Derek Bevan (Wales); David Bishop (New Zealand); 
Joel Dume (France); Wayne Erickson (Australia); 
Jim Fleming (Scotland); Colin Hawke (New Zealand); 
Stephen Hilditch (Ireland); Steve Lander (England); 
David McHugh (Ireland); Ed Morrison (England); 
Stef Neethling (South Africa); Patrick Robin (France); 
Ian Rogers (South Africa); Clayton Thomas (Wales).

Quarter-final games were allocated to: Ed Morrison (France vs. Ireland), Jim Fleming (South Africa vs. Western Samoa), David Bishop (England vs. Australia) Derek Bevan (Scotland vs. New Zealand).

Semi-final games were allocated to: Derek Bevan (South Africa vs. France), Steve Hilditch (New Zealand vs. England). The semi-final game was Bevan's 29th international.

The final was given to Ed Morrison. It will be his 17th international. The touch judges will be Derek Bevan and Joel Dume. Clayton Thomas will be the reserve touch judge.

The 3rd place play-off game was given to Dave Bishop. It will be his 26th international. The touch judges will be Colin Hawke and Wayne Erickson with Ian Rogers the reserve touch judge.

Notes:

Ed Morrison did 2 pool games at the '91 World Cup and also has the '94 Bledisloe Cup to his credit. Steve Lander only had his international debut at the Scotland vs Wales Five Nations game in 1995.

Australia have nominated Wayne Ericson (NSW) and Barry Leask (Q'land). "Gus" Ericson has a reputation of being a hard man (former 1st grade prop) and he usually gets the nod for nasty matches in Sydney. He did the England Canada test last year. Barry Leask did the Otago NSW Super 10 game this year. Don't know much else about him.

Colin Hawke did the South Africa vs England series in South Africa last year (his first internationals?).

Derek Bevan has refereed more internationals than anyone else.