Georgian referee Nika Amashukeli will take charge of the Springboks’ opening clash of 2022 – his first Test outside Europe – when Wales visit South Africa for a three-match series in July.

Amashukeli will blow the first encounter in Pretoria on 2 July, while Angus Gardner from Australia was appointed for the second Test on 9 July in Bloemfontein, and Englishman Matthew Carley handed the final clash in Cape Town on 16 July.

World Rugby announced its match official appointments for the June/July Test window on Thursday, with South African officials Jaco Peyper, AJ Jacobs, Marius Jonker and Marius van der Westhuizen also receiving appointments for the Test window.

Peyper has been appointed to referee the second Test between the All Blacks and Ireland (9 July), where Van der Westhuizen will be the television match official, two weeks after Jacobs will referee the Test between Chile and Scotland on 25 June.

Jonker will be heading west on TMO duty in the USA on the first three Saturdays in July. He will start in Argentina, when the Pumas host Scotland in San Salvador (2 July), followed by the two Rugby World Cup qualifiers between Chile and USA, in Chile (9 July), and a week later in Glendale, Colorado in the USA (16 July).

South Africa will also have two referees on the panel for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, from 29-31 July, following the inclusion of Morne Ferreira and Ashleigh Murray-Pretorius on the team of match officials for the four-yearly event.