Stuart Cummings accepts role with International Rugby League

Sky Sports pundit and former referee Stuart Cummings has accepted a new role to become International Rugby League first ever match official manager.

His job will be to grow the number of international standard match officials, whilst also looking to increase the general pool of officials around the world.

He will be seen as the public face of international match officials and will oversee ‘appointments, development, high-performance evaluation, pathways and educational frameworks’.

“I am really excited and honoured to be taking on this role with International Rugby League,” he told the International Rugby League website. “Since I refereed my first international in 1994, I have seen officiating in international competition as the pinnacle of a match official’s career.

“I look forward to developing opportunities for officials to experience some of the highs that I did during my officiating career as well as working with countries where Rugby League is developing as a sport in order to create pathways for their match officials to progress.”

Cummings has also now stepped down from his role with Sky Sports.