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South African Match Officials on World Rugby U20 Championship Panel

South Africa’s Griffin Colby and Quinton Immelman were included amongst the list of match officials confirmed on Thursday for the forthcoming World Rugby Under-20 Rugby Championship, which kicks off in a month’s time in Italy.

Colby will do duty as a match referee whilst Immelman will be involved as a Television Match Official (TMO).

Ten referees from 10 different nations have been selected to officiate at the age-grade tournament, which will be staged across the Lombardia and Veneto regions in Italy from 29 Juneto 19 July.

Apart from Colby, the other referees are Tomas Bertazza (Argentina), Ben Breakspear (Wales), Katsuki Furuse (Japan), Peter Martin (Ireland), Marcus Playle (New Zealand), Jérémy Rozier (France), Filippo Russo (Italy), Lex Weiner (USA) and Morgan White (Hong Kong China).

Seven of the 10 will be making their World Rugby U20 Championship debuts, including Katsuki Furuse, Morgan White, and Lex Weiner, underlining the strength of World Rugby’s development pathway for match officials.

Five Television Match Officials complete the panel in Immelman, Leo Colgan (Ireland), Graham Cooper (Australia), Aled Griffiths (Wales), and Dan Jones (RFU) with two of them – Colgan and Immelman – also selected for Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 in England later this year.

World Rugby Talent ID Manager and Tournament Referee Manager Johnny Lacey said: “The selection of this panel highlights the referees that are coming through our pathway system. We have been working closely with our unions and regions to increase the number of match officials in our pathway into World Rugby competitions.

“We are already starting to see the benefits with our talent identification programme providing four referees for this tournament and we are excited to see what the future holds for the officials involved in our men’s and women’s pathways.”

The world’s best 12 teams will play matches across four cities in Italy – Calvisano, Rovigo, Verona and Viadana – in the race to lift the coveted trophy.

England are the defending champions after beating France in the 2024 final in South Africa for a fourth title, while three-time winners France arrive in Italy as U20 Six Nations champions, and six-time champions New Zealand recently won the U20 Rugby Championship crown.

Split into three pools of four teams, the winners of each pool and the best runner-up across the three pools will qualify for the semi-finals.

World Rugby Under-20 Championship 2025:

Date: 29 June to 19 July

Stadiums: Stadio San Michele (Calvisano), Stadio Mario Battaglini (Rovigo), Payanini Center (Verona), Stadio Luigi Zaffanella (Viadana).

Pools:

Pool A: England (1), Australia (6), South Africa (7), Scotland (12)

Pool B: France (2), Argentina (5), Wales (8), Spain (11)

Pool C: New Zealand (3), Ireland (4), Georgia (9), Italy (10)

Pool matches:

Match day 1: Sunday, 29 June (Calvisano and Verona)

Match day 2: Friday, 4 July (Rovigo and Viadana)

Match day 3: Wednesday, 9 July (Calvisano and Verona)

Playoffs:

Match day 4: Monday, 14 July (Verona and Viadana)

Match day 5 (final and ranking matches): Saturday, 19 July (Calvisano and Rovigo)

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  1. South Africa is a country that loves variety when it comes to sports. A wide range of sports is being played in South Africa, including cricket, football, rugby, tennis, basketball, boxing, golf, athletics, etc. The country and its people are always excited about some game. For them, there are a lot of matches to watch and tournaments to bet on. Someone living in South Africa can never run out of sports content because they are pretty active in that segment. Moreover, from kids to older people, everyone enjoys sports in South Africa, regardless of their participation in South African betting companies.

  2. Shahid Afridi used Sachin Tendulkar\’s bat to hit the fastest ever ODI century – Shahid Afridi was flown in to play for the Pakistan team from West Indies to Nairobi in 1996 and didn\’t have a proper bat. That\’s when Waqar Younis gave \’Young Afridi\’ Sachin Tendulkar’s bat. Afridi hit 11 sixes and six boundaries with the bat and scored a 37-ball century against Sri Lanka which was the then fastest ODI century. The record, broken later by Corey Anderson (36 balls), now belongs to South Africa\’s AB de Villiers (31 balls).