Limerick official to make Assistant Referee debut in 2024 Six Nations

THE Emirates World Rugby Match Officials have been confirmed for the 2024 Guinness Six Nations, the first international competition on the road to the men’s Rugby World Cup 2027 in Australia.

A total of 15 different referees representing eight nations will take charge of the 15 matches that comprise the championship, kicking off on 2 February.

Limerick-based official Andrew Brace will referee the Calcutta Cup match between Scotland and England in Round 3 with Chrisy Busby as AR1 and Limerick's Eoghan Cross as AR2 making his Championship debut. 

Eoghan Cross took up refereeing with the Munster Association of Referees (MAR) for the 2016/17 season.

This was after a successful playing career which saw him play in the AIL with Young Munster RFC from 2011-2013. Cross also played Ireland Schools in 2011 and was a member of the Munster Rugby sub-Academy for the 2011/2012 season.

Since taking up the whistle, Cross has progressed swiftly through the refereeing ranks. He became a member of the IRFU National Referee Panel in the 2018/19 season while the following season, he was an assistant referee for the first time in both the URC and EPCR competitions.

In the 2021/2022 season, Cross became a member of the IRFU High Performance Referee Panel and this campaign also included refereeing his first U20 Six Nations match and the AIL final between Clontarf and Terenure at the Aviva Stadium.

He took charge of his first URC fixture in May 2022 when refereeing the meeting of Benetton and Cardiff Rugby at the Stadio Monigo.

Brian MacNeice will serve as TMO for Scotland’s Round 2 clash with France and Limerick referee Joy Neville will do the same for the final round game between Wales and Italy.

IRFU Head of Referees Dudley Phillips welcomed the announcement, “We’re delighted to see Eoghan make his debut as an Assistant Referee in the Championship and he joins Andrew, Chris, Brian and Joy who represented Ireland so well during the Rugby World Cup.

"Adding Eoghan to the list is testament to the ongoing work done to help our high performance referees develop and work at the highest levels of the game.”