JP Doyle makes return to refereeing after being released by RFU

A hugely-experienced and respected referee, Doyle began his career in 2001 and officiated regularly in the English Premiership. In May 2014, Doyle refereed the Premiership Final before being appointed as an official at the 2015 Rugby World Cup and taking charge of matches in the Six Nations.

He was controversially made redundant by the RFU in 2020 during the pandemic, whereupon he headed to the United States in Major League Rugby (MLR) as a referee coach before coming back to the UK and working as a part-time teacher at Craigclowan Preparatory School in Perthshire – which attracted the SRU’s attention.

“Throughout my career I have always had opportunities to be involved in coaching and being from an educational teaching background for the last 15 years, this role mirrored perfectly where I wanted my career to go,” said a delighted Doyle.

“The refereeing department within Scottish Rugby is already successful so this is a brilliant opportunity for me to develop that and put further structures in place to what is already working well.

“My main focusses from the refereeing side will be help develop the technical side but also the human element. To achieve long term success it is critical that our referees maintain positive relations across the game in order achieve success."

The first game of the Lions tour of New Zealand was swept into controversy following a horrific spear tackle on Captain Brian O’Driscoll, which ended his tour within minutes. The tackle, with O’Driscoll picked up by two players in the ruck, was against the rules, but the ref waved play on.

The moment caused a major knock-on effect in World Rugby, tightening up restrictions on spear tackling.

Matthew Tait sliced open the Boks defence and hurtled towards the line. Andy Gomarsall moved it quickly to Mark Cueto on the left wing who dived through the tackle of Danie Rossouw and over the line.

Alain Rolland called for the TMO. It was tight. Impossibly tight. No try.

England were instead awarded a penalty which Wilkinson slotted, and roused by Cueto’s diving effort they had the momentum.

But the Springbok nut was impossible to crack. Montgomery’s boot kept a huffing and puffing England at bay, guiding his side to a 15-6 win.

South Africa were deserved World Champions, England the plucky, dethroned former kings.

But if Cueto’s ghost try had stood, it all could have been so different.

Many Kiwis still haven't gotten over Barnes' performance in the 2007 RWC quarter-final against France.

Barnes missed a clear forward pass from Damien Traille to Freddie Michalak in the lead up to a France try.

It led to the All Blacks' earliest ever exit from a World Cup.

Scotland were heavy underdogs in this game and yet a Mark Bennett interception try with seven minutes to go, seemed to have given Scotland the victory and place in the semi finals.

With 2 minutes left to play, Scotland make a hash of their lineout, the ball bobbles around a few times and Joubert awards a penalty to Australia for Scotland playing the ball in an offside position.

At the time, the TMO couldn’t be used to review these sorts of incidents, so Craig Joubert was left to make a decision based on what he saw in that split second. Unfortunately for him, the penalty incident was replayed on the big screen as the kick was taken and the crowd could see the ball had hit an Australian player.

The game finished with Joubert beating a hasty retreat from the ground, after Foley had kicked the penalty to give Australia a 35-34 point victory.

World Rugby later released a statement saying that Joubert had got it wrong.

The ball comes forward from Liam Williams and Ken Owens momentarily catches the ball before dropping it. Referee Romain Poite immediately signals for a penalty for a deliberate offside, and in such a kickable position the series looks to be New Zealand’s.

After demonstrations from the Lions’ captain Sam Warburton, Poite decides to ask the TMO to check the incident.

After talking to the TMO Poite seems to be happy with his original decision that it was a deliberate offside and therefore a penalty, but by the time he has walked over to the two captains, his view has changed and he deems Owens’ intervention to be accidental and therefore just a scrum.

Make your own mind up. Did Read fairly challenge Williams in the air? Did the ball come forward off Williams? Was Owens’ contact accidental or deliberate?