Referees in NZ provincial Finals

Lawrence the 15th

Bryce Lawrence of the Bay of Plenty has been appointed to referee the first Air New Zealand Cup Final, the lineal descendant of the NPC finals.

The final will be played at Waikato Stadium in Hamilton between Waikato and Wellington, two sides who have met three times in semi-finals (1999, 2003 and 2004) but not in a final.

Lawrence is only the eighth referee to referee a final of the New Zealand provincial competition but then this is just the 15th final.

Dave Bishop refereed the first NPC final, the first two in fact. Paddy O'Brien refereed most finals in his career – 4. Between Bishop and O'Brien it means that Southland have had by far the most referees to referee NPC finals. Add Bishop's old classmate Colin Hawke and South Island has certainly dominated. Even Paul Honiss spent time on South Island and Lyndon Bray was born and educated in Dunedin. Lawrence is from North Island and so are both finalists. In fact were it not for Keith Brown of Southland, the whole corps of match officials would have been North Islanders.

At 33, Steve Walsh is the youngest referee to referee a final. The next youngest is Kelvin Deaker who was 34 when he refereed the final in 1999. Bryce Lawrence will turn 36 just before Christmas.

All of the referees who have refereed finals have refereed Test matches – many more Test matches than finals!

Referees for the NPC First Division finals:

1992: Waikato vs Otago: Dave Bishop (Southland)
1993: Auckland vs Otago: Dave Bishop (Southland)
1994: Auckland vs North Harbour: Colin Hawke (South Canterbury)
1995: Auckland vs Otago: Colin Hawke (South Canterbury)
1996: Auckland vs Counties Manukau: Paddy O'Brien (Southland)
1997: Canterbury vs Counties Manukau: Colin Hawke (South Canterbury)
1998: Otago vs Waikato: Paddy O'Brien (Southland)
1999: Auckland vs Wellington: Kelvin Deaker (Hawke's Bay)
2000: Wellington vs Canterbury: Paul Honiss (Waikato)
2001: Canterbury vs Otago: Paul Honiss (Waikato)
2002: Auckland vs Waikato: Paddy O'Brien (Southland)
2003: Auckland vs Wellington: Lyndon Bray (Wellington)
2004: Canterbury vs Wellington: Paddy O'Brien (Southland)
2005: Auckland vs Otago: Steve Walsh (North Harbour)
2006: Waikato vs Wellington: Bryce Lawrence (Bay of Plenty)

The match officials for the first Air New Zealand Cup Final:

Referee: Bryce Lawrence
Touch judges: Kelvin Deaker, Gary Wise
Television match official: Keith Brown
Assessor: Stuart Beissel, Glenn Wahlstrom