Former Bay of Plenty, Hawke’s Bay and Chiefs’ first-five-eighth, Daniel Waenga, and New Zealand Netball Umpire, Jono Bredin are among the 12 new referees in the squad.

Former Chiefs player Waenga has recently hung up his boots and joins fellow squad members Glen Jackson, Jamie Nutbrown and Rebecca Mahoney as former players turned referees.

Returning to the squad for 2019 are professional referees, Glen Jackson, Nick Briant, Mike Fraser, Ben O’Keeffe, Paul Williams and Brendon Pickerill. They will vie for potential selection for next year’s Rugby World Cup.

Sevens rugby-specialists Richard Kelly and James Doleman are set to feature heavily in the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series this season, as well as Lauren Jenner, who has been appointed for the World Rugby Sevens Series for the first time.

The 34 National Squad referees will officiate in a range of competitions, including Investec Super Rugby (professional referees only), Mitre 10 Cup, Mitre 10 Heartland Championship, Farah Palmer Cup, Jock Hobbs Memorial National Under 19 Tournament and other domestic fixtures.

NZR National Referee Manager, Bryce Lawrence, said selectors were focused on building strength and depth towards Rugby World Cup 2019 and an increase in domestic competition matches in 2019.

“I challenged our selectors to be bold and brave and I am delighted with the squad chosen. Next year will be huge with the Rugby World Cup in Japan and we are hoping to have at least four match officials selected for that pinnacle event,” he said.

With the women’s game growing at a fast-rate and other domestic competitions constantly increasing in quality, we need to build depth and internal competition within our national squad to ensure we have enough quality referees to match the volume of games being played.”

With one eye on the future, Lawrence said he was excited to see the current group of referees to push for selection at both Super Rugby and Test match level.

“We understand that it takes anywhere between two to five years to develop a referee in the high performance environment and I am really interested in how each referee will respond to the opportunities and challenges. It is encouraging to see so many referees come through the programme and I am excited about what 2019 holds.”

The following referees have been selected for the 2019 New Zealand Rugby

National Referee Squad:

(* = new to the National Squad ** = a comeback to the National Squad)

Glen Jackson (Professional referee) Bay of Plenty

Nick Briant (Professional referee) Bay of Plenty

Mike Fraser (Professional referee) Wellington

Ben O’Keeffe (Professional referee) Wellington

Paul Williams (Professional referee) Taranaki

Brendon Pickerill (Professional referee) North Harbour

Jamie Nutbrown Canterbury

Angus Mabey Auckland 

Richard Kelly Taranaki

James Doleman Otago

Cam Stone Taranaki

Michael Winter Waikato

James Munro Canterbury

Tim Griffiths Manawatu

Nick Webster North Otago

Hugh Reed Hawke's Bay

Tipene Cottrell Hawke's Bay

Damien McPherson Poverty Bay

Nick Hogan Wellington

Rebecca Mahoney      Wairarapa Bush

Stuart Curran* Otago

Jono Bredin* Otago

Marcus Playle* Auckland 

Chris Paul* South Canterbury

Brittany Andrew* Manawatu

Maggie Cogger–Orr* Auckland 

Lauren Jenner* Counties Manukau

Daniel Waenga* Hawke's Bay

George Haswell* Canterbury

Daniel Moore* Canterbury

Larissa Collingwood* Waikato

Monique Dalley* Wellington

Vincent Ringrose** Wellington

Richard Gordon** Wellington

Article added: Tuesday 05 February 2019