Zimpapers Logo

Brandon Moyo, [email protected]

ZIMBABWE female rugby referee, Precious Pazani has, once again, received another high profile appointment from World Rugby after she was announced as one of the officials for the second tier WXV 2 competition in Cape Town, South Africa.

The six-team competition that the highly-rated Pazani will officiate at will be played in September. Pazani is set to officiate in three matches at the tournament, two as an assistant referee and one as the main referee.

Zimbabwe’s leading referee will be the first assistant referee for the opening match of the tournament pitting the hosts, South Africa and Japan at the DHL Stadium, Cape Town on September 27 before going on to assume the same role the following day in a match between Italy and Scotland on September 28 at the same venue. 

Pazani will also be the referee for the South Africa versus Australia match at the Athlone Sports Stadium, Cape Town on October 5.

This is not the first time that Pazani has been appointed by World Rugby to officiate. Last year, she was named in the referees’ panel for both the World Rugby Under-20s Championship and Under-20s Trophy. The World Championships were held in South Africa while the Trophy took place in Kenya.

 Pazani and Kat Roche from the United States of America (USA) became the first female officials to referee at the Under-20s Trophy.

The forthcoming WXV 2 competition that Pazani will be officiating at will consist of six teams – South Africa, USA, Italy, Scotland, Japan and Samoa – playing in a cross-pool format. The sixth-placed regional position in the WXV 2 competition at the end of each season will be relegated to WXV 3.

The WXV was formed following the expansion of the 2025 Rugby World Cup from 12 to 16 teams. The Test calendar was restructured, with the WXV serving to revolutionise the women’s international landscape. WXV was announced on 16 March 2021 with the inaugural edition intended to begin in September 2022, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, it was pushed back to 2023 to accommodate the postponed 2021 Rugby World Cup. The tournament is expected to be played within an international window from September to October, except for Rugby World Cup years

In 2023, the fourth-placed team from the Six Nations Championship and Pacific Four Series qualified for WXV 2 alongside the champions of the Oceania Rugby Women’s Championship, the Asia Rugby Women’s Championship, and the Rugby Africa Women’s Cup. Additionally, the winner of the playoff between the fith placed team in the Six Nations and the champions of the Rugby Europe Women’s Championship secured a place.

Pazani has previously officiated at the World Rugby Challenger Series in South Africa and at the Dubai Invitational Sevens and the Cape Town Sevens at the end of 2022. It was at the Cape Town Sevens where she became the first-ever Zimbabwean referee to handle a World Rugby Sevens Series match. She was the referee for the match between Brazil and Japan as well as the match between Canada  and Fiji. – @brandon_malvin