Wayne Barnes referees a Premiership final. Photograph: Andrew Fosker/Premiership Rugby.

A former Monmouth student has been named as the 2019 rugby Referee of the Year.

Wayne Barnes, a former Sixth Form student at Monmouth School for Boys, picked up the World Rugby honour in Japan on Sunday 3rd November.

The Old Monmothian was presented with the prestigious accolade by the chairman of World Rugby’s referees’ selection committee, Anthony Buchanan, at The Prince Park Towers in Tokyo.

Wayne is one of the most recognisable rugby referees in the global game, and this was his fourth Rugby World Cup.

He holds the record for the most Premiership English rugby matches officiated and has refereed more finals in England’s top-tier than anybody else – eight in all.

Gloucestershire-born Wayne, who took up the whistle at the age of 15, works as a criminal barrister at Fulcrum Chambers in the City of London, dealing mainly with fraud.