Celtic Rugby has approved an amendment to the rules regarding match officials for Magners League games this season. The requirement for the referee of games, other than those between teams from the same union, to be selected from a neutral union, is no longer in force.
David Jordan, director of Celtic Rugby, explained: "The change is as much about having equity in terms of the number of appointments that each Celtic Union has after the loss of the Border Reivers team as the strict neutral policy would have meant that the number of WRU & IRFU appointments would have fallen sharply while SRU appointments remained relatively unchanged.
"The only way to achieve equity was to reduce the strict neutrality clause to allow occasional appointments to be made on a non-neutral basis and Celtic Rugby will allow exchange of referees with other Unions if appropriate.
"All Celtic Rugby officials are now appointed from a discrete panel of suitably experienced referees and all appointments go through an approval process between Celtic Rugby and the Referee Managers from each of our Unions."
The change to referee selection for Magners League games is just one of a number of measures introduced by Celtic Rugby this season as they align with other professional rugby competitions. The introduction of Television Match Officials (TMOs) and Citing Commissioners on matchdays has already been announced.
