Rugby World Cup 2023: who is the referee, TMO and assistants for Samoa vs Chile

Samoa will finally get their 2023 Rugby World Cup campaign underway this weekend.

The Pacific Islanders sat out the first round of the tournament - due to the pools having five teams, each side gets one rest week during the group stage. Manu Samoa have competed at every world cup since 1991 and have made the quarter-finals twice, but not since the 1995 edition.

Chile, who made their world cup debut last weekend, will be hoping to improve upon their defeat against Japan in the opening round of fixtures. The South American side upset Canada to qualify for the tournament.

Rodrigo Fernandez opened the scoring on Sunday 10 September - scoring the country's first ever points at the competition - but Japan proved too strong, aided by two yellow cards from the Chileans, and powered to 42-12 victory.

Manu Samoa head into the tournament on the back of a strong showing in the final warm-up game against a fancied Ireland side - narrowly losing 17-13 in that match. But who will be the referee for the game at Stade de Bordeaux, Bordeaux on Saturday, 16 September, afternoon.

Here's all you need to know:

Who is the referee for Samoa vs Chile?

New Zealand match official Paul Williams will be taking charge of the game on Saturday afternoon. It is his first match of the 2023 Rugby World Cup - having been an assistant for the Italy vs Namibia game on the opening weekend.

The 38-year-old made his debut in Super Rugby in 2016 - and took charge of the U20 World Rugby Championship later that year. He was the first New Zealand born referee to officiate an All Blacks’ test in 40 years when he controlled the first match of the 2020 Bledisloe Cup series at Sky Stadium in Wellington on 10 October, 2020.

He will referee the Samoa vs Chile game on Saturday almost 48 hours after serving as an assistant for France vs Uruguay on Thursday.

Who are the assistant referees and TMO?

Paul Williams will be joined by Australian referee Angus Gardner and fellow New Zealander James Doleman as his assistants. Gardner was the referee for Scotland's game against South Africa on the opening weekend.

Australian official Brett Cronan will be the TMO for the match. He has not yet made an appearance at the tournament.

How can you watch Samoa vs Chile?

In the UK, ITV (and STV in Scotland) has exclusive broadcasting rights for the tournament. The pool game between Samoa vs Chile at 2pm on Saturday, 16 September, will also be available to watch live on the streaming service ITVX.