South African referee AJ Jacobs will take charge of the highly anticipated coastal derby between the Sharks and Stormers in Durban on Saturday.

In the sole match on Friday Jaco Peyper will hold the whistle for the clash between the NZ conference-leading Chiefs and the Hurricanes in Hamilton.

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Marius van der Westhuizen will be the man in the middle for the early kick-off between the in-form Blues and the Lions at Eden Park, before Kiwi Brendon Pickerill takes charge of the Sunwolves vs Crusaders clash – the first of a double-header at Suncorp Stadium.

The Reds’ encounter with the Vodacom Bulls will have New Zealander Mike Fraser wielding the whistle for the second match in Brisbane.

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Australian Damon Murphy will be in Buenos Aires, where the Jaguares return home to take on the travelling Highlanders in the first of two matches on Sunday morning. The round concludes with an Aussie derby between conference leaders the Brumbies and the struggling Waratahs. Rasta Rasivhenge will have the whistle for the clash in Canberra.

BLUES vs LIONS (Auckland, Saturday, 5:25am)

Referee: Marius van der Westhuizen (SA)
Assistants: Jaco Peyper (SA), Ben O’Keeffe (NZ)
TMO: Glenn Newman (NZ)

REDS vs BULLS (Brisbane, Saturday, 10:15am)

Referee: Mike Fraser (NZ)
Assistants: Rasta Rasivhenge (SA), Graham Cooper (AUS)
TMO: George Ayoub (AUS)

SHARKS vs STORMERS (Durban, Saturday, 3:05pm)

Referee: AJ Jacobs (SA)
Assistants: Egon Seconds, Divan Uys (SA)
TMO: Willie Vos (SA)

Photo: Ryan Wilkisky/BackpagePix