Watson starts World Cup 2007

Opening match in Andorra

South Africa's Andre Watson has been appointed by the IRB to referee the first match of Rugby World Cup 2007 - in Andorra on 4 September 2004.

This is one more international than Watson had expected. He recently retired from international refereeing. Offered a choice of last match, he chose the first ever by the Pacific Islanders - against Australia in Adelaide.

He has not stopped refereeing, and has been doing Currie Cup matches in South Africa. But he has already been involved in the training of referees in South Africa.

Watson is the only referee to have refereed two World Cup Finals in addition to a record five Super 12 Finals and a record Six Currie Cup Finals.

Now he is off to tiny Andorra, tucked in the Pyrenees between France and Spain to referee the opening salvo of Rugby Word Cup 2007- three years before the next Final in Paris in 2007.

The match in Andorra is the first qualifier for 2007 - between Andorra and Norway.

Andorra faded from FIRA-AER competition but have been resurrected for this match. Their last match was against Yugoslavia (as the side was then called) in May 2002 and they suffered a 9-15 defeat. They were scheduled to play Moldova in June of the year, but the Moldovans were awarded a walk-over.

Norway also started the 2003 Rugby World Cup, when they played Luxembourg on 23 September 2000. They lost that match and their other qualifiers against Israel, Sweden and Latvia.

That match in Stavanger was refereed by Wieslaw Piotrovicz of Poland. Luxembourg won 41-9.

Andorra won a match in their qualifying round - against Bulgaria but they lost to Hungary, Switzerland and Bosnia.

Andorra and Norway have not met before. Of the 95 teams the IRB has ranked Andorra are ranked 64th, Norway 91st. Norway beat Finland in 2003 and 2004.

Bill Beaumont and Jacques Laurans, members of the Rugby World Cup Board, will be present in Andorra, as will Bernard Lapasset, the President of the Fédération Francaise de Rugby (FFR) and Jean-Claude Baqué, President of the European Rugby Association (FIRA-AER).