Brian Anderson is a retired Scottish

rugby Union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...

who took charge of nineteen major international matches. The international matches that he officiated over took place between 1985 and 1991 and included matches at the first two

Rugby World Cup The Rugby World Cup is a men's rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams. The tournament is administered by World Rugby, the sport's international governing body. The winners are awarded the Webb E ...

s. When he retired in 1991, he had refereed the most internationals by any Scot.

Refereeing career

His first international match in charge was a

Five Nations Championship The Six Nations Championship (known as the Guinness Six Nations for sponsorship reasons) is an annual international men's rugby union competition between the teams of England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. The current champions ar ...

match between Wales and England on 17 January 1981 at

Cardiff Arms Park Cardiff Arms Park ( cy, Parc yr Arfau Caerdydd), also known as The Arms Park, is situated in the centre of Cardiff, Wales. It is primarily known as a rugby union stadium, but it also has a bowling green. The Arms Park was host to the British E ...

. In the

1987 Rugby World Cup The 1987 Rugby World Cup was the first Rugby World Cup. It was co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia – New Zealand hosted 21 matches (17 pool stage matches, two quarter-finals, the third-place play-off and the final) while Australia hosted 11 ...

he refereed the pool match between Australia and the United States at

Ballymore Stadium Ballymore is a rugby union stadium situated in Herston, Queensland, Herston, a suburb of Brisbane, Australia. It is the headquarters of Queensland Rugby Union and was the home ground of the Brisbane City (rugby team), Brisbane City team in the ...

in Brisbane on 31 May 1987, then the quarter final match between Australia and Ireland, played at the

Concord Oval Concord Oval (also Waratah Stadium), is a rugby football stadium in the inner-west Sydney suburb of Concord, Australia. The stadium is able to hold 5,000 people as of November 2022, down from 20,000 when the Concord Oval was opened in 1985. , it ...

in Sydney. He was referee in semi-final between Australia and France on 13 June 1987. Anderson was a touch judge in the 1987 Rugby World Cup Final played between New Zealand and France on 20 June. In the 1991 Rugby World Cup he was referee of the pool A match between England and Italy on 8 October 1991 and the pool C match between Argentina vs West Samoa at

Sardis Road Sardis Road is a rugby union stadium situated in Pontypridd, Wales. It is home to the Principality Premiership team, Pontypridd RFC and previously the Celtic Warriors, the now defunct regional rugby union team. It is commonly known as the "Hous ...

Pontypridd () (colloquially: Ponty) is a town and a community in Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. Geography comprises the electoral wards of , Hawthorn, Pontypridd Town, 'Rhondda', Rhydyfelin Central/Ilan ( Rhydfelen), Trallwng (Trallwn) and Treforest (). The ...

on 13 October 1991. In the quarter final match between Ireland vs Australia on 20 October he was a touch judge. Anderson's last international refereeing appearance on 13 October 1991 was at the World Cup match between Argentina and Western Samoa in Pontypridd where he had to retire from his duties having sustained a hamstring injury during that match and was replaced by his fellow Scottish Referee, Jim Fleming. In December 1991, he retired from refereeing, citing his reasons as "personal and business". The International Rugby Football Board's new rule came into force and limited the panel of referees to three per country. The SRU secretary Bill Hogg paid tribute to Anderson on his retirement, saying that

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Brian Living people Rugby union officials Scottish rugby union referees Rugby World Cup referees Year of birth missing (living people)