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Referees in NZ provincial Finals

By Paul Dobson
Tuesday 21 Oct 2008

Bryce Lawrence of the Bay of Plenty has been appointed to referee his second Air New Zealand Cup Final when Wellington host Canterbury. It is also the second time these two teams have met in a Final.

Nine referees have refereed a New Zealand Final, but then this is just the 17th.

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/ANC 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. In fact  the whole corps of match officials is made up of 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 was 35 and Chris Pollock 36 when they refereed their first Final.

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)
2007: Auckland vs Wellington: Chris Pollock  (Hawke’s Bay)
2008: Wellington vs Canterbury: Bryce Lawrence (Bay of Plenty)

The match officials for the 2008 Air New Zealand Cup Final:

Referee: Bryce Lawrence
Touch judges: Vinny Munro, Chris Pollock  
Television match official: Steve Walsh
Assessor: Colin Hawke, Lyndon Bray

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