Rolland or Joubert for Rugby World Cup final

Referee Craig Joubert. Photo / Getty Images

The seventh Rugby World Cup final will be refereed by Alain Rolland or Craig Joubert.

The pair have been chosen to control this weekend's semifinals and whoever wins the most approval from the International Rugby Board's judgment panel will go on to referee the tournament showdown.

Irish referee Rolland whistled the 2007 final between the Springboks and England and while he missed the quarter-finals in this year's tournament, he will control this weekend's opening semifinal between Wales and France.

South African Joubert has been picked to take charge of the second semifinal between the All Blacks and the Wallabies. His assistants will be Nigel Owens (Wales) and Romaine Poite (France). Rolland's assistant referees for the France v Wales semifinal will be Jonathan Kaplan (South Africa) and Wayne Barnes (England).

The referees who worked in last weekend's quarter-final matches but have not been called upon in the semifinal selection cut are Steve Walsh (Australia) and Bryce Lawrence (New Zealand).

It is understood the selection panel were happy with the work of most officials although they felt Lawrence had allowed the match between the Springboks and Australia to drift too much. There was a similar observation of his work in the Super 15 final between the Crusaders and the Reds this year.

Rolland had been left off the quarter-final roster so the assessors could evaluate the work of the other quartet. When they reconvened it did not take them long to decide Rolland and Joubert were the two referees whose performances merited further work.