World Rugby has confirmed the 35 match officials making up the men's and women's panels for the HSBC SVNS 2025 and the World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger 2025.
Twelve federations are represented among the 17 officials named in the SVNS 2025 panels, a little more than half of whom were already in the 2024 group and thus join the newcomers in the high-performance referee teams of the 7th.
One of them will make his debut this year on the world circuit, the Basque Evan Urruzmendi. At only 28 years old, the native of Saint-Jean-de-Luz has established himself as one of the most promising young referees in France. He previously officiated on the World Rugby HSBC Sevens Challenger last year.
Beginnings: player then referee at 15
It was at the age of 5 that Evan discovered rugby by joining the local rugby school, but it was at 15 that his journey took an unexpected turn. In addition to playing, he began refereeing on the fields at youth tournaments, often assigned to hold the whistle when no one else was available.
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“In juniors, in addition to being a player, you had to appoint a referee on the boards. It often fell on me… Perhaps because I was not the key element of the team…”, he joked to the Nouvelle-Aquitaine regional league.
At the age of 15, he joined this training center and then devoted himself fully to this new path. From that point on, Evan continued to rise through the ranks. After refereeing as a cadet and junior, he began officiating regional series matches at the age of 18.
A real shock for him, not only in terms of level of play, but also in the management of matches and men. In parallel with his business studies in the sports field, he took the young federal referee competition, paving the way for rapid progression.
He went from Federal 3 to Pro D2 in six years
At the age of 20, he was already classified in Federal 3, then moved to Federal 2 the following year. For three seasons, he forged his skills in this division, at the crossroads of amateur and elite rugby, before entering Federal 1. Covid-19 interrupted this dazzling progress.
At 26, the consecration arrives: Evan is promoted to Pro D2, the antechamber of the Top 14, while being regularly appointed assistant in the Top 14 and even for European Cup matches.
But the defining moment of this meteoric rise came in the spring of 2024, when Evan refereed his first international match. It was during the U20 Six Nations Tournament, where he led the Italy-England match.
International experience
Since then, we haven't stopped him. At the start of the year, he was an assistant in the Champions Cup and Challenge Cup in South Africa with three other French people: Luc Ramos, Jérémy Rozier and Patrick Dellac.
“It’s the memory of stadiums with nearly 80,000 seats, but also the discovery of a new country, new landscapes, incredible wildlife,” he marvels.
Two years after his debut in Pro D2, Evan took his first steps in Top 14 in September for Toulon-Castres in Mayol. A big chunk to start with.
“I'm 28 years old, actually, it's a relatively quick journey when you know that in France, we start at the regional level and that we can only move up one division, each season,” he confided then to France Blue Basque Country.
Oscillating between Top 14 and Pro D2, it was he who also officiated at Provence-Brive which saw the reunion of Courtney Lawes and Jules Plisson in mid-October.
