Stuart Dickinson
Date of birth | (1968-07-19) 19 July 1968 (age 56) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Stuart Dickinson (born 19 July 1968) is an Australian former Rugby union referee. Dickinson has refereed in many rugby competitions, including the Rugby World Cup, Tri Nations, Six Nations, international friendlies, Super 12/14/15, and Shute Shield. He was a referee at the 1999 Rugby World Cup, the 2003 Rugby World Cup, and the 2007 Rugby World Cup. He is Australia's most-capped referee, and the only Australian referee to appear at three Rugby World Cups.
Referee career
Dickinson commenced refereeing at the age of 12 while also playing fly-half and fullback for Epping Boys' High School. He was employed full-time with the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) from 1996 to 2011. Prior to 1996, he worked as a site manager for Linfox, a transport company as well as with the New South Wales Police Force.
He made his international refereeing debut in 1997 in a Rugby World Cup qualifier between Tahiti and Papua New Guinea. He refereed his first international match between two Tier 1 nations a year later for the 1998 international between Wales and South Africa at Wembley.
Dickinson refereed several pool games in the 2007 Rugby World Cup, including Fiji's upset of Wales. Shortly after the 2007 World Cup, Dickinson authored a book entitled "The Rugby World Cup Diaries – A referee's inside view."
Dickinson was publicly criticised by IRB referees manager Paddy O'Brien for his refereeing of the scrums in the Italy v New Zealand test match at the San Siro Stadium in Milan on 14 November 2009. O'Brien stated that Dickinson had got it "completely wrong", believing the Italian tight-head prop, Martin Castrogiovanni was boring in on his opposite. This led to outrage by the Australian Rugby Union, who issued a formal complaint to the IRB against Paddy O'Brien. O'Brien ended up apologising to Stuart Dickinson and the Australian Rugby Union: "I have unreservedly apologised to Stuart Dickinson for the action of publicly discussing elements of his performance review and would like to extend that apology to the Australian Rugby Union," said O'Brien.
Retirement
In 2010 despite being rated in the Top 3 SANZAR Referees (after being appointed to the Super Rugby semi-final in Soweto) he was overlooked for the 6 Nations tournament for the first time since 2000. Then in 2011 Dickinson was overlooked for the Rugby World Cup. O'Brien denied there was any vendetta against Dickinson. Dickinson subsequently announced his retirement from refereeing on 27 September 2011.[1]
Test Match Honour Roll
At the Townsville District Rugby Union Referees Dinner on 2 October 2009, Dickinson confirmed (at that time) he had refereed 43 international matches in total. 41 of those matches are listed below.
- 1997
Papua New Guinea v Tahiti
- 1997
Tonga v Cook Islands
- 1998
Canada v Argentina
- 1998
Hong Kong v South Korea
- 1998
Wales v South Africa
- 1999
New Zealand v France
- 1999
Scotland v Uruguay
(World Cup)
- 1999
Argentina v Japan
(World Cup)
- 1999
Ireland v Argentina
(World Cup)
- 2000
France v England
- 2000
South Africa v England
- 2000
Wales v Samoa
- 2001
France v Scotland
- 2001
England v Italy
- 2001
New Zealand Maoris v Argentina
- 2001
England v South Africa
- 2002
Japan v South Korea
- 2002
Chinese Taipei v South Korea
- 2002
Fiji v Tonga
- 2002
New Zealand v South Africa
- 2002
Wales v Fiji
- 2003
New Zealand v England
- 2003
Scotland v Japan
(World Cup)
- 2003
South Africa v Georgia
(World Cup)
- 2004
Wales v France
- 2004
New Zealand v Pacific Islanders
- 2005 British and Irish Lions v Argentina
- 2005
England v Barbarians
- 2005
Wales v South Africa
- 2006
Ireland v Scotland
- 2006
New Zealand v Ireland
- 2006
South Africa v France
- 2006
France v New Zealand
- 2007
New Zealand v France
- 2007
New Zealand v South Africa
- 2007
USA v Tonga
(World Cup)
- 2007
Argentina v Namibia
(World Cup)
- 2007
Wales v Fiji
(World Cup)
- 2008
Ireland v England
- 2008
New Zealand v South Africa
- 2008
New Zealand v Samoa
- 2008
Wales v Canada
- 2009
England v France
- 2009
South Africa v British and Irish Lions
- 2009
Italy v New Zealand
- 2010
Argentina v France
- 2011 New Zealand vs Fiji
2010 Super 14 season
- Round 1, 12 February 2010: Hurricanes 34 – 20 Blues
- Round 7, 26 March 2010: Highlanders 39 – 29 Lions
- Round 8, 2 April 2010: Western Force 16 – 15 Stormers
- Round 9, 10 April 2010: Blues 21 – 33 Stormers
- Round 12, 30 April 2010: Stormers 42 – 14 Crusaders
- Round 13, 8 May 2010: Sharks 20 – 14 Stormers
- Semi-Final, 22 May 2010: Bulls 39 – 24 Crusaders
References
- ^ "Stu Dickinson calls time on his career". rugby.com.au. 27 September 2011. Retrieved 27 September 2011.
External links
- Stuart Dickinson on rwc2003.irb.com
- Rugby World Cup 2007 match official appointments set IRB.com
- "Boks blame Dickinson" – Tri-Nations 2007 refereeing controversy sport.iafrica.com
- v
- t
- e
- Andrew Cole (Australia)
- Pablo Deluca (Argentina)
- Stuart Dickinson (Australia)
- Paul Honiss (New Zealand)
- Joël Jutge (France)
- Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa)
- Peter Marshall (Australia)
- David McHugh (Ireland)
- Paddy O'Brien (New Zealand)
- Alain Rolland (Ireland)
- Tony Spreadbury (England)
- Steve Walsh (New Zealand)
- André Watson (South Africa)
- Chris White (England)
- Nigel Williams (Wales)
- Scott Young (Australia)
- Donal Courtney (Ireland)
- Kelvin Deaker (New Zealand)
- Giulio de Santis (Italy)
- Joël Dumé (France)
- Mark Lawrence (South Africa)
- Alan Lewis (Ireland)
- Iain Ramage (Scotland)
- Nigel Whitehouse (Wales)