Ireland’s 2018 Six Nations referees confirmed and we’ve got a pretty good deal

The five sets of match officials for Ireland's Six Nations games have been confirmed by World Rugby.

Ireland kick off their Six Nations campaign by taking on France, in Paris, on February. Welsh referee Nigel Owens will take charge of the game and has a decent reputation for keeping games ticking over. Wayne Barnes and Paul Williams will run the sidelines for Ireland's opener against Les Bleus. Owens is one of rugby's biggest characters and one of the best referees in the business. With him on the scene, there are rarely dull moments: https://twitter.com/SportsJOEdotie/status/650636234826600449 Ireland then have three home games on the spin and the referee that stands out from this stand is Barnes, who has drawn the ire of Irish fans on a few occasions in the past.

• IRELAND vs. Italy - Romain Poite (referee), Pascal Gauzere (assistant 1), Matthew Carley (assistant 2)
• IRELAND vs. Wales - Glen Jackson (referee), Pascal Gauzere (assistant 1), Matthew Carley (assistant 2)
• IRELAND vs. Scotland - Wayne Barnes (referee), Ben O'Keeffe (assistant 1), Luke Pearace (assistant 2)

Williams was Ireland's referee in their Guinness Series win over Fiji while O'Keeffee was the man in the middle for our 38-3 thrashing of South Africa. Ireland's final game will be against England, in Twickenham, on March 17 and Australian referee Angus Gardner will take the whistle for this one. The assistant referees will be the South African pair of Marius van der Westhuizen and Jaco Peyper. All told, it is a good selection of referees for Joe Schmidt's men.