RUGBY: Three Irish referees appear on the International Rugby Board's A list for the 2005/2006 season. Donal Courtney, Alan Lewis and Alain Rolland are part of the 16-man panel that will officiate in this year's 22 autumn international matches in Europe and Argentina and in next year's Six Nations Championship.

The appointments were made after a review by the IRB Referee Selection Committee of performances from last season. In total 31 referees have been appointed to A, B and C level international matches.

The A panel is for those considered capable of refereeing A-level internationals, the B panel for those capable of refereeing B-level internationals and aspiring to the A panel.

The C panel contains others aspiring to the A panel, with sufficient refereeing time in their curricula vitae to make that level and deemed likely to benefit from participating in major international matches.

Obviously, none of the Irish referees will take charge in any of the Ireland games against New Zealand, Australia or Romania before Christmas or in the Six Nations Championship but former international cricketer Lewis has been given a chance to whistle in one of the biggest matches of the year in this hemisphere, England against the All Blacks in London on November 19th.

Blackrock Rugby Club's Rolland is the referee for Scotland's match against Samoa on November 20th, and Dubliner Courtney will also travel to Scotland for their match against New Zealand at the end of November.

Eddie O'Sullivan's Irish team has a different referee for each of the Six Nations matches. Dave Pearson takes charge against Italy in Dublin in Ireland's opener on February 4th, with Paul Honiss officiating the away match against France on February 11th.

South Africa's Jonathon Kaplan takes charge of Ireland's third game, at home to Wales, which will be his second Irish match of the season as he also officiates in Ireland's November international against New Zealand. Stuart Dickinson takes charge of the March 11th match against Scotland and Frenchman Joel Jutge is the custodian for Ireland's closing game, in Twickenham against England.

Chris White and Andrew Cole are the officials for Ireland's games against Australia and Romania, respectively.