Citing Commissioners are appointed by the RFU for all Premiership, Championship and Premiership Women's matches and are entitled to cite a player for any act or acts of Foul Play that in the Citing Commissioner's opinion warranted a red card.
For such matches, clubs will not have the power to cite a player but may refer incidents to the Citing Commissioner within 12 hours of the end of the match.
The Citing Commissioner will have 24 hours from the end of the match to make a citing in the Premiership and 48 hours from the end of the match in the Championship and Premiership Women's matches. In certain circumstances, this deadline can be extended.
The RFU Head of Discipline will then bring a charge against the cited player.
CITING COMMISSIONERS
Ally Hogg
Ally Hogg was a professional rugby player for 16 seasons playing at Edinburgh Rugby and Newcastle Falcons. He made 127 appearances for Edinburgh and 178 For Newcastle and also represented his country at all levels: U18, U19, U21, Scotland A Scotland Sevens, winning 48 caps for Scotland.
Andrew Blyth
Andrew Blyth has been appointed to Premiership, Premiership Women’s and RFU Championship matches as an RFU Citing Commissioner since 2011. He has also been appointed to various World Rugby, Six Nations and EPCR matches, having retired as a professional player in 2000 after breaking his neck while playing. He played for Tynedale, Newcastle, Northampton and Sale and represented England at every level up to Saxons. Andy is an ambassador for the RPA’s Restart charity and the RFU’s Injured Players Foundation. He enjoys renovating properties and fly fishing on the River Tyne.
Brian Campsall
Brian Campsall is an RFU Citing Commissioner since the 2019/20 season. After playing for Carnegie College, Morley, Yorkshire and Old Crossleyans, Brian started his career as a referee, reaching the Top Level. Between 1989 and 2002, he refereed 1999 RWC, the only World Cup final played (Brive v Auckland Blues), semi-finals of both Heineken and Euro Challenge Cups, two Pilkington Cup finals and the Cross-code Challenge between Bath and Wigan at Twickenham. He also refereed most of the Citing Commissioners en route, including the Head of Discipline David Barnes! He was the referee technical advisor with England from 2003-2015 and employed by the RFU as Professional Referee Development Manager from 2001-2019. During the last 6 years, he has been the representative of the PGMOT for PRL/RFU Discipline Meetings re consistency of discipline issues in Premiership Rugby.
Budge Pountney
Budge Pountney has been an RFU Citing Commissioner since 2007 and has been appointed to various World Rugby and EPCR matches throughout the 15 years. Budge retired as a professional player in 2003 having played for Northampton and Scotland. He is currently Rugby development manager at Ulster Rugby.
Buster White
Michael ‘Buster’ White had a rugby career both as an amateur and one of the first professional players. He made over 100 appearances for London Wasps in the Premiership and Cup competitions, and won two England Saxon Caps as well as making five appearances for the Barbarians. Buster then went on to play for London Welsh before taking up coaching, including a spell as forwards coach at Richmond. In 2002, Buster took up a position on Disciplinary Panels before stepping up to Citing Commissioner in 2011, working in Europe and the World game as well as domestically.
Chris Catling
Chris Catling played over 100 Premiership games for Gloucester between 1996 and 2003, before having spells in France in the top 16 with ASBH Beziers and in Italy’s top 10 with Amatori Catania. Chris finished his career after returning to his first rugby club Exeter Chiefs in 2006 where he had been Exeter’s first pro player 10 years earlier. Chris was capped 10 times for England A and has been an RFU Citing Commissioner since 2013. He has been appointed to various matches in the Premiership, Championship, Premiership Women's, EPCR and World Rugby. Chris is a Senior Director at the sports agency Infront.
Chris Sharp
Chris has been a Referee and Assistant Referee on the National Panel and PGMOT for 20 seasons, and has officiated over 1000 matches in all levels of the game. He played Rugby for Wharfedale before an ankle injury forced him to retire and start refereeing in the early '90s. Chris now lives and works in Malham in the Yorkshire Dales, and gas been an RFU Citing Commissioner since the 2018/19 season. He is also a keen sportsman: he likes skiing in winter and golfing in summer.
Csaba Priskin
Csaba Priskin started playing rugby in Hungary, where he became Hungarian champion and an U18 national player. Following an injury, he started to get involved in refereeing. He was one of the founders of the Committee of the Hungarian Rugby Referees in 2004 and was the secretary until 2016. He has been an international referee between 2005 and 2017 and represented Hungary in 15s and 7s games and tournaments in Rugby Europe competitions. In 2016, he joined to the Czech Rugby Referees team to support them with his international experience and knowledge. Csaba became a Citing Commissioner in 2021 and has been appointed by EPCR and Rugby Europe, before becoming an RFU Citing Commissioner in the 2023-24 season. While he is originally from Hungary, Csaba currently represents Czech Republic in Rugby.
Dana Teagarden
Dana Teagarden became a Citing Commissioner in 2018 and has been appointed by World Rugby, Rugby Europe, EPCR, RFU, and MLR. Originally from the USA but based now in Germany, she was invited to join the RFU CC team in 2020. Dana began playing Rugby in 1988 at the United States Air Force Academy, winning the first collegiate women’s national championship in 1991 and named as an MVP. She was “forced” to referee in 1989 and continued refereeing while playing because it accelerated her game understanding and contributed positively to winning when she played. As an international referee for 7s & 15s, Dana refereed 3 World Cups, Women’s Six Nations, and 23 tests from 2006 to 2014. She was the first female referee appointed by World Rugby to referee World Series men’s 7s (San Diego 2007), senior men’s 15s (Netherlands v Hong Kong 2010), and Tier 2 AR (Japan v USA 2011). She retired from refereeing due to injury in 2014. Dana’s other previous Rugby volunteer lives include playing for the USA National Team; coaching club, collegiate and provincial teams; technical consultancy to teams with a focus on the breakdown and relationship management; 7 years as video analyst for the German Men’s 15s; World Rugby Trainer MO and CC strands; HP and community referee performance review and coaching.
Danae Zamboulis
Danae Zamboulis started playing rugby in Greece and joined the Birkenhead Park Panthers when she moved to the UK for postgraduate studies. She also played for Cheshire county and the North of England division. Following a knee injury, she looked for different ways to stay involved with rugby and coached senior men’s rugby at Oxton Parkonians for a couple of years. She is now fully enjoying her role as a Citing Commissioner with appointments for the RFU, EPCR and WR, including appointments to the Gallagher Premiership final in 2020, the Allianz Premier 15s final in 2021, and the Tokyo2020 Olympics, and looks forward to continuing to grow in her role.
Danny Rumble
Danny Rumble began working at the Rugby Football Union (RFU) in 2006. After moving to the Discipline Department, Danny was responsible for the development of the citing system in England from 2012, implementing the current assessment process as well as the appointment of Citing Commissioners to all Premiership and Championship games. In 2016, Danny left the RFU to take up a similar role with European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) in Switzerland, while continuing to operate as a Citing Commissioner for the RFU.
Dave Guyan
Dave Guyan had a successful careering the Royal Navy before becoming Team Manager at Saracens in 2007. He then became Rugby Operations Manager at Bath Rugby where part of his role was preparing the defence of players appearing at Disciplinary hearings. He then joined the RFU where he became the Discipline and Citing Executive before taking up a role as a consultant in the Defence sector. Dave has been a Citing Commissioner since 2014 working in domestic, European, Six Nations and World Rugby competitions and is a World Rugby Citing Educator. He also works as a reviewer and trainer for the RFU and EPCR Citing Commissioners.
Duncan Bell
Duncan Bell retired from professional rugby in 2012 having spent most of his career at Bath Rugby but also playing for Sale Sharks, Pontypridd, Ebbw Vale, Harlequins and Newport Gwent Dragons. During his career he toured Australia, New Zealand and South Africa with England and was capped five times as well as playing several times for England Saxons. He is a RFU level 3 qualified coach and in 2012 passed his rugby referee accreditation. Having been a coach in the National Leagues, he became an RFU Citing Commissioner in 2017 and regularly reviews games in the Premiership, Championship and the Premiership Women's. Duncan is Sales Manager at Chartwell Funding, providing mortgage, commercial and bridging financial advice.
Grant Seely
Grant Seely became a Citing Commissioner in the summer of 2017. He has been appointed to the Premiership, Championship, Premiership Women's and European matches. He retired as a professional player in 2006 after 15 seasons at Northampton Saints and represented England at U21, A, Full XV and played in a number of IRB 7s tournaments including the World Cup in Argentina in 2001. Grant was the RPA representative for Northampton Saints before becoming Academy Coach for four years, where he qualified as an RFU Level 4 qualified coach. He now works as Director of rugby at Stowe school in Buckingham and was the DPP head coach for Wasps in Oxfordshire.
Greg Garner
Greg Garner was a professional referee with the RFU from 2008-2017. During this time he refereed over 200 professional rugby games. This included over 100 Premiership games, 30 Champions Cup games and 15 international games. He was also appointed to officiate on the IRB World 7’s Series, the Six Nations and the Rugby Championship. After retiring, Greg was the Elite Referee Manager for the Guinness PRO14 from 2017-2021, where he was responsible for all aspects of match officiating within the tournament. Greg now works as a management consultant for SNC Lavelin based out of Bristol. He has been an RFU Citing Commissioner since the 2021-22 season.
James Hall
James Hall has been appointed to Premiership, RFU Championship and Premiership Women's matches as an RFU Citing Commissioner since 2017. While studying for a teaching degree in Physical Education at Liverpool John Moores University, James represented England Students. He played professionally for Coventry, Newcastle Falcons and Bristol Rugby. James retired from playing due to a knee injury and is an RFU level 3 coach.
James Hudson
James Hudson began his playing career at Bath Rugby and went on to play for London Irish, Newcastle Falcons and finally Gloucester Rugby retiring in 2016. He amassed over 250 appearances in his 15 year career, also representing England against the Barbarians in 2006 and England Saxons in 2006 and in 2010 winning the Churchill Cup. James has been an RFU Citing Commissioner since 2017.
Jay Curts
Jay Curts has been an RFU Citing Commissioner since 2018, joining them as part of the mentoring scheme to develop Citing Commissioners. Jay's home union is the Mexican Rugby Federation. He was the 7s Team Manager for over 4 years, and the Discipline Coordinator for over 5 years. He has been appointed as Citing Commissioner to Premiership, Premiership Women’s and RFU Championship games, but also to Rugby Americas North 10s and U19s tournaments, HSBC World Rugby 7s Series, EPCR and World Rugby games.
John Byett
John Byett has been appointed to Premiership, Championship and Premiership Women's games as an RFU Citing Commissioner since 2006, and to numerous World Rugby Tier 1 and 2 games, as well as World Rugby Sevens Finals and EPCR matches. His playing career over 18 years was mainly with Basingstoke and briefly Bedford, and then as Chairman of Playing for 15 years. County playing honours with Hampshire and then as County Manager saw his team winning the County Championship Plate competition 2007-08.
Liam McTiernan
Liam McTiernan joined the RFU Discipline Department in 2007 as a Disciplinary Case Manager, before joining ERC in 2011 in a similar role. He became the Disciplinary Officer of EPCR in 2015, responsible for the training and management of all European Citing Commissioners, as well as running all disciplinary operations in European professional club rugby. He has been an RFU Citing Commissioner in the RFU Championship since 2012, and in the Premiership Women's since 2017. As a player, he represented Moseley RFC and Birmingham University, before joining Woodrush RFC, Edwardian FC and Harlequin Amateurs RC as a social player. He now plays Vets rugby.
Matt Banahan
Matt Banahan was a professional rugby player for 16 years playing at Bath rugby where he made 264 appearances scoring 100 tries, he later moved to Gloucester rugby amassing another 44 appearance. He also represented England 7s and England A, also gaining 16 full England caps and being part of the 2011 Six Nations winning team and the 2011 World Cup squad. Matt has been an RFU citing Commissioner since 2022.
Paul Burke
Paul Burke was appointed an RFU Citing Commissioner in 2017 and has overseen RFU Championship, Premiership Women's and Premiership matches. He has also been appointed by World Rugby and EPCR. After a career spanning 16 years, Paul gained 13 international caps for Ireland between 1995 and 2003 and played club rugby for London Irish, Bristol, Cardiff, Harlequins, Munster and Leicester. He retired as a professional player in 2008 and took up a coaching role at Leicester Tigers until 2014. He is currently the Director of Rugby at Epsom College.
Richard Nunn
Richard has been an RFU Citing Commissioner since the 2019/20 season. He previously worked at the RFU alongside the RFU Discipline Department on a variety of on-field and off-field regulatory and disciplinary matters. He is now the Anti-Doping & Integrity Manager at the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA). As a player, he represented Exeter Chiefs at U18/U19 while at university, prior to playing for clubs in the National and Regional leagues. He also represented Surrey in two County Championship finals at Twickenham. He now plays socially at Cobham RFC.
Shaun Gallagher
Shaun Gallagher is a former Merseyside Police Officer, who has been an RFU Citing Commissioner since 2011, covering Premiership, Championship and Premiership Women’s matches. He also undertakes the same role for EPCR, Six Nations and World Rugby, and has been appointed to Tier-1 Internationals and World 7s tournaments. In 2018, he was appointed to the 7s World Final in San Francisco and, in 2019, he to the World Cup final in Japan. Recently, Shaun has also been appointed to the 2023 World Cup in France. A former back row forward with Waterloo and Orrell in the 1980s and early 1990s, he gained representative honours with Lancashire, North of England, British Police and Combined Services. He coached at local league and county level, before taking up the role of a RFU Citing Commissioner.
Tony Diprose
Tony played for 15 years at both Saracens and Harlequins in the Premiership whilst also representing both England and the British Lions. He retired from playing in 2006 and then spent the next 13 years as the Academy Director, 1st XV Assistant Coach, and setting up and developing the Harlequins Women’s rugby programme. He is currently the Director of Sport and Physical Wellbeing at Canford School in Dorset. Tony has been an RFU Citing Commissioner since 2019.
