Owens, who yesterday refereed the Wednesday League Cup final at Cardiff Arms Park which saw Coleg Sir Gâr edge out Coleg y Cymoedd in a thriller, will take charge of the third round encounter on February 25.
Wales’ top official will also be involved as an assistant for the Italy v France clash in Rome (11 March) and when Scotland host Italy in Edinburgh a week later.
Appointments were made by the World Rugby Match Official Selection Committee at its recent meeting in Dublin and follow a detailed review of all performances in the past two months.
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The championship opener between Scotland and Ireland on Saturday, 4 February in Edinburgh will be refereed by Romain Poite of France with his compatriot, Jérôme Garcès, taking charge of the last match, on Saturday, 18 March between Ireland and England in Dublin.Â
Poite and Garcès, along with England’s Wayne Barnes, have received two appointments each with a total of 12 referees involved.
New Zealander Ben O’Keeffe and France’s Mathieu Raynal will make their championship debuts when they take charge of Italy v France in Rome and England v Scotland in Twickenham, respectively, on 11 March.
O’Keeffe (27) refereed his first of three full internationals in June of this year while Raynal already has 10 tests under his belt, most recently in October when he took charge of the Ireland v New Zealand match in Chicago.Â
The full list of referees involved (with home union and total number of tests to date in brackets) is: Wayne Barnes (RFU, 70), JP Doyle (RFU, 22), Jérôme Garcès (FFR, 35), Angus Gardner (ARU, nine), Pascal Gauzere (FFR, 28), Glen Jackson (NZR, 21), John Lacey (IRFU, 23), Ben O’Keeffe (three), Nigel Owens (WRU, 75)
