It takes a lot to be an international referee these days. Craig Joubert has been all over the world in the past few weeks. Jaco Peyper covered the kind of mileage that a long distance runner would do while taking charge of the Australia – Barbarians classic in Twickenham last Saturday. Nigel Owens has the not-insignificant matter of England v New Zealand at the same ground on Saturday. And then there’s the question of getting selected for Rugby World Cup 2015. Not an easy life.

The world’s top officials gathered in London this week ahead of the latest IRB Test window, which officially gets underway this weekend. Along with meeting with IRB High Performance Match Official Manager Joel Jutge, the selection panel and getting some physical training sessions in, it’s an opportunity for the refs to get together under one roof and swap stories from the field.

Team coaches also have their opportunity to give their feedback and opinions ahead of the Test window, as they met with Joel Jutge to iron out any issues that may have cropped up during international Tests over the past year.

With November seen as a major opportunity for teams to get much-needed game time before next year’s Rugby World Cup, and the pressure on referees to get selected for that tournament, is the next 12 months a crucial period for the world’s top match officials?

“I think it going to be a more intense November series than we've had in the last three years,” said Nigel Owens who sat down to speak to Total Rugby at the Lensbury Hotel in London.

“There’s no guarantee (about appearing at Rugby World Cup). It’s simple - unless you perform and you’re refereeing well, you won’t be officiating in the World Cup. I think that’s all you've got to do, go out there and ref to the best of your ability, and if you do that everything else should look after itself.”

Each year brings countless questions and opinion pieces on what areas of the game could and should be focused on by referees, and this year is no different. But the laws of the game haven’t changed and referees have to get on with implementing them.

“Our job is the same really; to go out there and referee the game, referee the laws of the game and focus in on the key areas (as well as) the clear and obvious - get the tackle area right, get the ball released properly, make sure that the assist tackler releases before he legally goes to regard the ball for a turnover.”

As for the scrums, what will the Welsh official and his colleagues be looking for?

“Stationary and square before the put-in, totally passive until the ball gets in and then when teams are scrummaging that they are legal, straight and square.”

FOR A FULL LIST OF REFEREE APPOINTMENTS IN NOVEMBER CLICK HERE

South African Craig Joubert took charge of USA’s historic encounter against the All Blacks at Soldier Field in Chicago last Saturday and has a number of other high-profile matches in store this November. He agrees with his Welsh counterpart that the breakdown and the scrum are very important.

“What we've spoken about as a group of referees is the need to really referee the breakdown, such that we can create an environment in which there is quick ball.”

“When teams can generate quick ball you can see some of the exciting Rugby that you've seen over the last couple of months and that’s really important for us this November that we continue to do that.”

“We've made some really significant steps in the last five years or so around the scrum, and it’s important going into the Rugby World Cup in 10 months’ time that we continue to improve our refereeing of the scrum so it continues to be a good product for the people out there.”

So does the man who took charge of the last Rugby World Cup final have an eye on next year in England?

"No one is guaranteed to be there and each window you go into, you're up for selection," said Joubert.

"It may be at the back of your mind but it's also something that's very real, and the World Cup is such an exciting tournament that obviously we all want to be a part of it."