Neil Patterson will signal the resumption of European club rugby competition when he takes charge of the opening Amlin Challenge Cup Round 5 match between Saracens and Toulon under the Vicarage Road floodlights on Thursday, 14 January.
The Scottish referee will control the key Pool 3 contest at the start of a weekend of top quality matches as the chase for the top spots in the five Pools - and with them the prizes of qualification for the quarter-finals in April - enters the final straight.
ERC, the tournament organisers, today (Tuesday, 5 January, 2010) announced the referee appointments for the remaining 20 Pool matches before the five Pool winners will be joined by three of the Heineken Cup Pool runners-up in the knock-out stages.
The nominated referees are drawn from the ERC 2009/10 Match Officials' panel, with the nominations proposed by Donal Courtney, the ERC Match Officials Performance Manager, to the ERC Match Officials Sub Committee.
The committee is made up of Referee Managers from the six Unions of the participating teams, who review and confirm the final appointments.
The performance of match officials will be reviewed by the ERC Match Officials Performance Manager, together with a panel of Performance Reviewers (PR). Head Coaches / Directors of Rugby are invited to submit their comments and feedback to the ERC Match Officials Performance Manager on the performances of Match Officials in their games.
