Stuart Dickinson is a former Australian rugby

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 referee

Referee

A referee is the person of authority, in a variety of sports, who is responsible for presiding over the game from a neutral point of view and making on the fly decisions that enforce the rules of the sport...

. He made his international refereeing debut in 1997 in a Rugby World Cup

Rugby World Cup

The Rugby World Cup is an international rugby union competition organised by the International Rugby Board and held every four years since 1987....

 qualifier between Tahiti

Tahiti national rugby union team

The Tahiti national rugby union team is a third tier rugby union team, representing the island of Tahiti in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France. They first played in 1971 and have played just 12 games to date, four against the Cook Islands and three against Niue. Other games have...

 and Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea national rugby union team

The Papua New Guinea national rugby union team represent Papua New Guinea in the sport of rugby union. Nicknamed the Pukpuks, , they played their first international in 1966, defeating Vanuatu 47-3. Papua New Guinea have not so far qualified for a Rugby World Cup...

.

A year later he was the referee for the international between Wales

Wales national rugby union team

The Wales national rugby union team represent Wales in international rugby union tournaments. They compete annually in the Six Nations Championship with England, France, Ireland, Italy and Scotland. Wales have won the Six Nations and its predecessors 24 times outright, second only to England with...

 and South Africa

South Africa national rugby union team

The South African national rugby union team are 2009 British and Irish Lions Series winners. They are currently ranked as the fourth best team in the IRB World Rankings and were named 2008 World Team of the Year at the prestigious Laureus World Sports Awards.Although South Africa was instrumental...

 at Wembley. He was a referee at the 1999 Rugby World Cup

1999 Rugby World Cup

The 1999 Rugby World Cup was the fourth Rugby World Cup, and the first to be held in rugby union's professional era. The principal host nation was Wales, although the majority of matches were played outside the country, shared between England, France, Scotland and Ireland...

 in Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

, the 2003 Rugby World Cup

2003 Rugby World Cup

The 2003 Rugby World Cup was the fifth Rugby World Cup and was won by England. Originally planned to be co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, all games were shifted to Australia following a contractual dispute over ground signage rights between the New Zealand Rugby Football Union and Rugby World...

 in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 and the 2007 Rugby World Cup

2007 Rugby World Cup

The 2007 Rugby World Cup was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament, which was hosted by France from 7 September to 20 October. France won the hosting rights in 2003,...

 in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. He is Australia's most-capped referee and the only Australian referee to appear at three World Cups. He has recently been confirmed as part of the eight-man core panel of referees for the 2010 Super Rugby.

Dickinson commenced refereeing at the age of 12 while also playing fly-half and fullback for Epping Boys' High School. He has been employed full time with the ARU since 1996. Prior to 1996, he worked as a site manager for LinFox, a transport company as well as with the NSW Police Force. He currently resides in Sydney with his wife and three children.

Dickinson was publicly criticised by IRB

International Rugby Board

The International Rugby Board is the governing body for the sport of rugby union. It was founded in 1886 as the International Rugby Football Board by the unions of Scotland, Wales and Ireland. England refused to join until 1890. The International Rugby Football Board changed its name to the...

 referees manager Paddy O'Brien

Paddy O'Brien (rugby referee)

Paddy O'Brien ONZM is a New Zealand international rugby union referee, and currently head of the International Rugby Board's Referee Board...

 in 2009 for his refereeing of the scrums in the Italy v New Zealand Test Match at the San Siro Stadium in Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

 on 14 November 2009. O'Brien stated that Dickinson had got it "completely wrong", believing the Italian tight-head prop, Martin Castrogiovanni

Martin Castrogiovanni

Martín Leandro Castrogiovanni is an Italian Argentine rugby union footballer. He played for Ghial Calvisano, with whom he won the Italian championship in 2005. He has since signed a new contract with Leicester Tigers, and after a successful 2006/07 season with them was named Guinness Premiership...

was boring in on his opposite. In 2010 Dickinson was rated in the Top 3 SANZAR Referees after being appointed to the Super Rugby semi-final in Soweto.

He announced his retirement from refereeing on 27 September 2011.

Representative Football

Dickinson has refereed in many world rugby competitions. These include:

• NSW Tooheys New Shute Shield (NSW Premiership Club Rugby First Grade, Australia)
• Super 12/14/15
• International Friendlies
• Tri Nations
• Six Nations
• The Rugby World Cup

Test Match Honour Roll

At the Townsville District Rugby Union Referees Dinner on 2 October 2009, Dickinson confirmed he had refereed 43 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 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 PIRA
• 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  

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

Published works

Shortly after the 2007 World Cup, Dickinson authored and released a book entitled "The Rugby World Cup Diaries – A referee's inside view" which gave an insight into the World Cup from the view of the referee.

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