IRB forced into late change to 6N officials
Scrum.com
January 30, 2008

The International Rugby Board has confirmed that England's Chris White has withdrawn from refereeing Saturday's opening RBS Six Nations match between Ireland and Italy at Croke Park.

The Englishman, who was a key member of the Rugby World Cup 2007 referee panel, has been ruled out owing to a minor calf injury and will be replaced by South Africa's Jonathan Kaplan.

"It is a blow for Chris to be missing the opening game of the Championship through injury. However, it is not serious, we will be monitoring his progress and we hope to see him back to full fitness in a couple of weeks in order to perform his other Championship appointments," said IRB Referee Manager Paddy O'Brien.

White's withdrawal means that there are also changes to the Championship Touch Judge appointments. Wayne Barnes will take White's place for France versus Ireland on February 9, while Nigel Owens comes in for the Englishman for Ireland versus Scotland on February 23.

The two further changes made to the Touch Judge appointments announced last October are Peter Allan replacing the recently retired Malcolm Changleng for Wales against Italy on February 23, while David Changleng has been added to the Ireland versus Italy fixture this weekend.

Click here to view all the match official appointments for this year's Six Nations

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