Former Test referee Nigel Owens has returned to rugby in an important new role to help the standard of officiating in the Vodacom United Rugby Championship.

The URC’s head of match officials, Tappe Henning, on Monday confirmed the introduction of an independent referee selection panel.

Owens, who retired in December 2020 after a 17-year career with the whistle, will serve on the panel from this season.

Also on the panel is George Clancy (Ireland), Stuart Berry (South Africa) and Neil Paterson (Scotland).

The panel’s job will not only be to review the performances of match officials, but also to select an elite group of referees.

“We changed the structure a bit on how we review our match officials’ performances,” Henning told reporters on Monday.

“In the past, it was done by the five high-performance referees from each union. But now we have a switch for four independent assessors as a selection panel. They are going to do those reviews with me as the chairman of the group.

“By doing this, we have aligned ourselves to the model World Rugby is using to assess international performances. The idea is to bring a fresh pair of eyes and fresh thinking into the mould.

“All four of them are recently retired international referees.

“The aim of that then is to get to an elite group of referees selected on merit and not necessarily on representation from each union, to bring credibility to the match officials we appoint. That’s the long-term goal.”

Photo: Getty Images