John Paul "JP" Doyle (born 3 August 1979) is an Irish born

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other title ...

. Doyle was one of ten full-time

referees A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titles ...

employed by the English

Rugby Football Union The Rugby Football Union (RFU) is the Sports governing body, national governing body for rugby union in England. It was founded in 1871, and was the sport's international governing body prior to the formation of what is now known as World Rugby ...

until his redundancy in August 2020. In 2021, he was a referee in

Major League Rugby Major League Rugby (MLR) is a professional rugby union competition in the United States. The league comprises 11 teams. While operating outside of the governance and oversight of the national governing body, the league is officially sanctioned ...

(MLR) in the United States. In 2022, he was named high performance referee coach by

Scottish Rugby Union The Scottish Rugby Union (SRU; ) is the Sport governing body, governing body of rugby union in Scotland. Now marketed as Scottish Rugby, it is the second-oldest Rugby Union, having been founded in 1873. The SRU oversees the national league sys ...

Playing career

Doyle was born in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

, the son of Terry Doyle, later President (2006–7) of the Association of Referees Leinster Branch of the IRFU. He played scrum-half at school for

Terenure College Terenure College is a Carmelite-run secondary school located in the suburb of Terenure, Dublin, Ireland. The school was founded in 1860 and had an associated primary school until 2017. It is one of the "big six" Leinster Schools Rugby-playing ...

, then

Terenure College RFC Terenure College RFC is an amateur rugby union club based in the Terenure suburb of Dublin, Ireland. The institution, founded on 5 November 1940, plays in Division 1A of the All-Ireland League. History Terenure College RFC was founded on 5 Nov ...

and St Mary's University College, Twickenham where he trained to be a secondary school teacher. He was forced to stop playing due to an injury and surgery on his back in 2002.

Refereeing career

Doyle started his refereeing career with the Association of Referees Leinster Branch of the IRFU in 2001 and joined the London Society of RFU Referees in January 2003. He was promoted to the South East Group later in 2003 and to the National Panel in 2006. He refereed the final of the Daily Mail Under 18 Schools Cup at

Twickenham Stadium Twickenham Stadium (; usually known as Twickenham, and for sponsorship purposes known as the Allianz Stadium Twickenham) is a rugby union stadium in Twickenham, London, England. It is owned by the Rugby Football Union (RFU), the English rugby u ...

in 2007 and the EDF Energy National Trophy Final in 2008. He was appointed as a trainee full-time official on 1 September 2008. In May 2010, the Elite Referee Unit (ERU) of the

RFU The Rugby Football Union (RFU) is the national governing body for rugby union in England. It was founded in 1871, and was the sport's international governing body prior to the formation of what is now known as World Rugby (WR) in 1886. It prom ...

confirmed his full-time contract after successfully completing a two-year trainee programme that had seen him referee in the Premiership, the IRB Sevens circuit, the

Churchill Cup The Churchill Cup was an annual rugby union tournament, held in June, contested by representative men's (and formerly women's) teams from Canada national rugby union team, Canada, England Saxons, England, the United States national rugby union te ...

and Pacific Rim Rugby Championship tournaments. He officiated at the

2009 IRB Nations Cup The 2009 IRB Nations Cup was the fourth edition of the international rugby union tournament, a competition created by the International Rugby Board. It pits the "A" Teams of the stronger (Tier 1) rugby nations ( France A, Italy A and Scotland A ...

, the

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

and

2012 IRB Junior World Championship The 2012 IRB Junior World Championship was the fifth IRB Junior World Championship, an annual international rugby union competition for Under-20 national teams. This competition replaced the now defunct Under 19 and Under 21 world championship ...

, and the 2010–12 European Nations Cup First Division. He has regularly refereed matches in the

RFU Championship The RFU Championship is an English rugby union competition comprising twelve clubs. It is the second level of men's English rugby and is played by both professional and semi-professional players. The competition has existed since 1987, when Eng ...

, Premiership and the LV= Cup including important Final matches. Doyle refereed his first

European Challenge Cup The EPCR Challenge Cup is an annual rugby union competition organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the second-tier competition for clubs based in European leagues behind the European Rugby Champions Cup. From its inception ...

match in the 2007–08 season on 18 January 2008 when he officiated at

Dax The DAX (''Deutscher Aktienindex'' (German stock index); ) is a stock market index consisting of the 40 major German blue chip companies trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. It is a total return index. Prices are taken from the Xetra t ...

verses

Calvisano Calvisano (Brescian: ) is a ''comune'' in the Italian province of Brescia, in Lombardy. It is the manufacturing base of Lones Spa, manufacturer of Fly Flot shoes. Agritech is a known fiberglass silos company. Sport Its rugby union Rugby ...

pool game. His first

Heineken Cup The European Rugby Champions Cup (known as the Investec Champions Cup for sponsorship reasons) is an annual rugby union tournament organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the top-tier competition for clubs who compete in a pre ...

game followed in the

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

season on 17 October 2010 (the pool game between

Perpignan Perpignan (, , ; ; ) is the prefectures in France, prefecture of the Pyrénées-Orientales departments of France, department in Southern France, in the heart of the plain of Roussillon, at the foot of the Pyrenees a few kilometres from the Me ...

and Benetton Treviso). On 27 May 2014, it was announced that Doyle would referee the 2014 Aviva Premiership final, his first as referee. On 25 September 2015, Doyle refereed the 2015 Rugby World Cup Pool C match between

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

and

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. Doyle refereed the opening match of the

2016 Six Nations Championship The 2016 Six Nations Championship, known as the 2016 RBS 6 Nations due to the tournament's sponsorship by The Royal Bank of Scotland, was the 17th series of the Six Nations Championship, the annual northern hemisphere rugby union championship. It ...

(between France and Italy).

Notes

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Doyle, J.P. Living people 1979 births Alumni of St Mary's University, Twickenham EPCR Challenge Cup referees European Rugby Champions Cup referees Irish expatriate sportspeople in England Irish rugby union players Irish rugby union referees People educated at Terenure College Premiership Rugby referees Rugby union players from Dublin (city) Rugby union scrum-halves Rugby World Cup referees Six Nations Championship referees Terenure College RFC players