Match officials for Aviva Premiership Rugby are selected from the RFU's Elite Referee Unit (ERU). The ERU consists of 14 referees and 20 touch judges and represents the cream of English officials. For each match, four officials (1 referee, 2 touch judges and a reserve referee) are selected by the ERU management team of Colin High, Ed Morrison and Brian Campsall. They are joined by a timekeeper and for televised matches a Television Match Official.

The referees in the ERU have worked their way through the refereeing ranks from Society/Federation level, through the regional groups and onto the National Panel of Referees. Their progression through each level is based upon passing a series of exams, their performance at each game measured by a referee assessor and fitness levels.

The touch judges are a mixture of former ERU referees and touch judges who have progressed through the TJ ranks in the same way as the referees.

Anyone interested in taking up refereeing should visit rfu.com.