The 23-year-old who hails from Llanmorlais, Gower and is a serving police officer with the Gwent force, started refereeing in 2009/10 and has risen rapidly through the ranks whilst being a part of the highly successful academy system that the WRU has in place.
Whitehouse has been in Hong Kong for three weeks and has already taken charge of three games, Georgia v Tonga, Canada v Uruguay and Tonga v USA and has performed well which has culminated in his selection for the final.
Whitehouse said on his selection: “This tournament has been a great experience for my development and I am delighted to have been given the honour of refereeing the final. I have enjoyed the experience so far. We have been superbly looked after by both the IRB and the Hong Kong Rugby Union and I am really looking forward to the challenge of Saturday final.
He added: “I would like to pay thanks to the WRU for the support they have given me and in particular Nigel Owens for his guidance and coaching over the last couple of years.”
WRU Match Officials Manager and Ben’s dad Nigel Whitehouse said: “Obviously I am very proud of Ben’s selection for this fixture and I wish him well as we all do, but more importantly it shows that the development structure we have within the academy system is working in our efforts to produce high quality match officials. I hope this appointment will also act as a catalyst for other youngsters out there to take up the whistle.”
