George Ayoub

George Ayoub (born 23 October 1963) is an Australian professional rugby union referee. He is currently a member of the Super Rugby panel for Television Match Officials (known as TMO), and is a former Test Match referee.^[2]

George Ayoub

Birth name	George Joseph Peter Ayoub
Date of birth	(1963-10-23) 23 October 1963 (age 61)
Place of birth	Sydney, Australia[1]
Rugby union career
Refereeing career Years Competition Apps 2001–2007 Test Matches 2000–2004 Super Rugby – IRB Sevens World Series

Born in Sydney, Ayoub trained as a teacher and took up refereeing in 1990 when he was a schoolmaster at St Patrick's College, Strathfield.^[3][4] By 1995 he was refereeing senior rugby in Sydney and he was selected on the Australian referees panel in 1996.^[4] He made his Super Rugby debut in May 2000, refereeing a Super 12 match between the Sharks and Chiefs in Durban.^[5]

Ayoub was appointed to his first Test in May 2002 between Japan and Tonga,^[6] and went on to referee 3 Tests and 17 Super Rugby matches before he retired at the end of 2007.^[3] In 2008 he returned to international rugby as a TMO.^[7]