Wayne Barnes will be the man in the middle for the opening match of the 2019 Guinness Six Nations when Wales and France do battle in Paris on Friday night.
The visitors will be looking to get off to a flying start against Les Bleus as Warren Gatland’s side attempt to go one better than last year’s second-place Championship finish.
Englishman Barnes will be assisted by Matthew Carley (RFU) and Brendon Pickerill (NZRU), with Rowan Kitt (RFU) acting as TMO for the fixture at the Stade de France.
The second match will see Scotland welcome Italy to BT Murrayfield, with the Azzurri targeting revenge following their narrow 29-27 defeat to Gregor Townsend’s side in 2018.
Luke Pearce will be officiating the match in Edinburgh, with the English referee joined by assistants Mathieu Raynal of France and Shuhei Kubo of Japan.
Ireland’s Simon McDowell will be on TMO duties as Scotland, who equalled their best finish since 2006 in coming third last year, attempt to kick off their campaign with a win.
Reigning Grand Slam champions Ireland begin their defence in the final game of the opening round when they welcome Eddie Jones’ England to Dublin on Saturday afternoon.
England won successive titles under Jones in 2016 and 2017 and will want to wrestle back the crown they lost to Ireland last year, when Joe Schmidt’s side sealed the Grand Slam at Twickenham.
Jerome Garces will be refereeing the game as Ireland set their sights on creating history by claiming back-to-back Grand Slams for the first time in their history.
French duo Romain Poite and Alexandre Ruiz will be the assistants, while Glenn Newman of New Zealand will be overseeing the game at the Aviva Stadium as the TMO.
