Stuart Dickinson - Referee Career

Referee Career

Dickinson commenced refereeing at the age of 12 while also playing fly-half and fullback for Epping Boys' High School. He was employed full time with the ARU from 1996 to 2011. Prior to 1996, he worked as a site manager for LinFox, a transport company as well as with the NSW Police Force.

He made his international refereeing debut in 1997 in a Rugby World Cup qualifier between Tahiti and Papua New Guinea. He refereed his first international match between two Tier 1 nations a year later for the 1998 international between Wales and South Africa at Wembley.

Dickinson refereed several pool games in the 2007 Rugby World Cup, including Fiji's upset of Wales. Shortly after the 2007 World Cup, Dickinson authored a book entitled "The Rugby World Cup Diaries – A referee's inside view."

Dickinson was publicly criticised by IRB referees manager Paddy O'Brien for his refereeing of the scrums in the Italy v New Zealand Test Match at the San Siro Stadium in Milan on 14 November 2009. O'Brien stated that Dickinson had got it "completely wrong", believing the Italian tight-head prop, Martin Castrogiovanni was boring in on his opposite. This led to outrage by the Australian Rugby Union, who issued a formal complaint to the IRB against Paddy O'Brien. O'Brien ended up apologising to Stuart Dickinson and the Australian Rugby Union: “I have unreservedly apologised to Stuart Dickinson for the action of publicly discussing elements of his performance review and would like to extend that apology to the Australian Rugby Union," said O'Brien.