Karl Dickson to referee first Gallagher Premiership final

Former Harlequins scrum-half Karl Dickson has been appointed to referee his first Gallagher Premiership final, nearly a decade into his career as a match official. Dickson will take charge of Bath vs Leicester at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham on Saturday.

The 42-year-old is no stranger to the big stage, having refereed in 24 Tests, including the last four Six Nations and the 2023 World Cup.

Dickson has refereed Bath four times in the league this season – the home and away games against Saracens and Sale – which ended with three wins and a defeat (the dead rubber vs Saracens in round 18).

Two of those games featured red cards, with Bath and Sale receiving one apiece in a 40-13 win for the blue, black and whites in October, while Toby Knight was sent off as 14-man Saracens slipped to a record 68-10 loss over the Christmas period.

Fixture

Gallagher Premiership

Bath

23 - 21

Full-time

Leicester

All Stats and Data

The Salisbury-born official has only been the man in the middle for one of the Tigers’ league games, the 36-19 win away to Bristol in April, where yellow cards were issued to Joe Heyes and Solomone Kata.

All told, Dickson has blown the whistle in 10 league matches this season and given out four red cards, the highest percentage of any of the 14 refs in a Premiership game this season.

However, his penalty count is at the lower end of the spectrum, according to data supplied by Oval Insights, with an average of 20.2 penalties per match, ranking him 12th.

Dickson will be assisted on the day by Luke Pearce and Adam Leal, while Ian Tempest is the TMO for Saturday’s season finale between the league’s top two teams from the regular season.