Tough does not remotely cover the job of the world’s best rugby referees and the lengths to which they go to navigate the sport’s labyrinthine laws

The 13th team participating at the Nations Championship this month are an intriguing bunch. If you didn’t know much about rugby and had wandered into a first-floor conference room at a hotel near Windsor on Monday you might almost have mistaken them for a gathering of airline pilots from nearby Heathrow. Slim, intelligent, studious ... you’d trust them to stay calm on the flight deck.

Stick them in matchday kit, however, and the world’s top rugby union referees do not always enjoy universal respect, certainly online. They can be unflappably brilliant for 79 and a half minutes and yet still be defined by one hairline call barely visible to the naked eye. Every Test in which they are involved is an away game and, popularity wise, they often receive the same unconditional love as traffic wardens and the chancellor of the exchequer.

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