International Referees

Ben Breakspear

A physiotherapist by profession, Ben Breakspear has rapidly moved up through the refereeing ranks since he decided to stop playing.

Merthyr-born Breakspear grew up supporting Pontypridd RFC and played fly-half for his hometown club Abercynon, Cynon Valley District, Heart of Wales District and Cardiff Blues U16s but chose to take up the whistle at the tender age of 16.

Just two years later, in 2017, he became the youngest-ever Welsh Premiership referee when he took charge of Bridgend v Newport.

Breakspear’s first taste of senior professional club rugby came in 2018 for the Anglo-Welsh Cup encounter between Wasps and Leicester and he has also been an assistant referee in the PRO14 (now the United Rugby Championship) and the European Rugby Challenge Cup.

On the international front, Breakspear’s rise has been no less spectacular in 15s and in sevens.

As a 19-year-old, Breakspear was chosen to be fourth official for the Six Nations encounter between Wales and Ireland in 2017, supporting Wayne Barnes and his team before taking charge of Croatia’s Rugby Europe Conference 1 South encounter against Israel the following year.

Breakspear’s call-up to the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series kept him busy. The Welshman made his debut in Vancouver in September 2021 and had the honour of refereeing the Cup final between South Africa and Kenya.

He continued to referee on the series and made his Olympic Games debut at Paris 2024, taking charge of two matches and acting as assistant referee in nine matches, including the gold medal match between France and Fiji.

Craig Evans

Craig Evans, from Glynneath, has been a full-time referee with the WRU since 2015.

Evans began refereeing at the age of 15 at one of his local clubs in South Wales, Cwmgwrach RFC, where his parents Martin and Annette were the chairman and secretary respectively, and never looked back.

He spent five years on the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, refereeing the final in his first two tournaments in Dubai and Cape Town, while progressing through Wales’s National Leagues and Premiership to the PRO14 (now United Rugby Championship).

When Evans handled England v Canada at Twickenham in July 2021, he became the first Welsh referee other than Owens to referee a match involving a Six Nations or Rugby Championship side since Leighton Hodges retired after Rugby World Cup 2015.

Evans refereed at the World Rugby U20 Championship in 2016 and 2019, and, in sevens, more than 20 World Series events, plus the Rugby World Cup Sevens in San Francisco and Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, both in 2018.

He was one of the 22 match officials for the sevens at the delayed Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021, but the hiatus in tournaments during the COVID-19 pandemic also allowed him consistency and continuity in the PRO14 and European Challenge Cup.

Evans made his Rugby World Cup debut at France 2023 as an assistant referee in six matches.

Adam Jones

Adam Jones started his officiating career at Gwernyfed RFC, progressing from junior games at Brecon and Gwernyfed to the senior game in 2012 at just 18 years of age. His first senior game was Garndiffaith 2nds v Abertysswg.

As he continued his refereeing path, he combined his rugby duties with those of a sports development officer with Powys County Council based in Llandrindod Wells and Builth Wells in the school Ysgol Calon Cymru but went on a years secondment refereeing before the WRU offered him a full time refereeing position in February 2022.

Jones had previously been one of the most consistent referees at club level, being voted the top referee in the Welsh Premiership for three consecutive years voted for by the coaches in the league.

He refereed on the World Series Sevens circuit from 2016 to 2021 and refereed at the sevens World Cup in San Francisco in 2018 before refereeing at the delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

Adam made his debut in the Pro14 in 2020 after the tournament commenced post covid with the Ospreys v Dragons game and followed that up the next week with Cardiff v Ospreys.

Adam has now done over 40 games in the United Rugby Championship and is currently on the elite panel. Outside of the URC he has refereed every season in the EPCR Challenge Cup competition and received various World Rugby appointments at U20 and senior level in various roles including refereeing/assistant refereeing and TMOing.

Ben Whitehouse

Ben Whitehouse began playing rugby at primary school, and continued at Gowerton Comprehensive School, as a contemporary from age 10-16 of Dan Biggar. Whitehouse also played at his local club, Penclawdd RFC near Swansea, and continued as a fly-half at Glamorgan University.

Having taken a referee course to help at Penclawdd, he was playing university rugby on Wednesday and refereeing on Saturdays. A couple of ankle injuries reduced his playing time, while his refereeing developed quickly between 2011-15 which was when he became fully contracted to the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU).

Whitehouse had started on a highly promising path in the police service – following in the footsteps of his father, Nigel, who had also been an international referee – as he came out of university after a year and a half, and into Gwent Police, spending five years on the Blaenau Gwent patch. Then he had a year with South Wales Police in Swansea, at which time he was on the point of completing his sergeant’s qualifications.

In the knowledge he could return to policing later in life, Whitehouse decided to concentrate on refereeing with Bob Yeman as his first manager at the WRU, before his father took the job in 2014. That November, Whitehouse was appointed by Ed Morrison for his Pro 12 debut with Connacht v Zebre in Galway, and he has since passed 50 matches in the middle in the competition.

Another highlight was running touch for Ireland’s win over New Zealand in Chicago in 2016, and then there was taking charge of Ulster v Barbarians in Belfast in June 2017, a few months after Whitehouse had been told he may never referee again.

He had been diagnosed with Crohn’s disease in 2013, and was quietly persevering and using medication until, in February 2017, he was in Brussels to referee Belgium v Georgia, and felt very ill over the weekend. Returning home, it was found he had sepsis and an abscess had burst. An emergency operation by a renowned bowel surgeon followed, and Whitehouse still needs an injection every two weeks to look after his health.

Whitehouse continued refereeing at United Rugby Championship and European levels, and handled his ninth men’s test, Uruguay v Namibia, in June 2019. At the request of World Rugby’s High Performance Match Officials Manager Joël Jutge, he took on the role of television match official (TMO) for England v Georgia in November 2020.

Whitehouse was appointed as TMO for the Rugby World Cup 2021 final between New Zealand and England at Eden Park on 12 November, 2022, having been one of four TMOs named on the panel for the tournament. He made his men’s Rugby World Cup debut as a TMO at France 2023 with nine matches in the role, including the Argentina v New Zealand semi-final and the bronze final.