Paul Williams broke 28 years of history last year, now fellow New Zealander Ben O’Keeffe is set to referee the All Blacks twice in the space of eight months.
The latest Covid-19 outbreak has meant the Australian officials appointed to Saturday night’s New Zealand v Tonga test in Auckland are now unable to travel across the ditch for the fixture.
World Rugby on Wednesday night (NZ time) announced changes to the match officials for the game, which will instead see a quartet of Kiwis in charge.
Paul Williams broke 28 years of history last year, now fellow New Zealander Ben O’Keeffe is set to referee the All Blacks twice in the space of eight months.
The latest Covid-19 outbreak has meant the Australian officials appointed to Saturday night’s New Zealand v Tonga test in Auckland are now unable to travel across the ditch for the fixture.
World Rugby on Wednesday night (NZ time) announced changes to the match officials for the game, which will instead see a quartet of Kiwis in charge.
That will mean Pickerill and Williams will be assistants in back-to-back games, maintaining their places on the touchlines for the Māori All Blacks v Manu Samoa match at Mt Smart which kicks off at 4.30pm.
Kiwi Mike Fraser stays as referee for that game, though O’Keeffe was slated to be TMO, so has now been replaced by Glenn Newman.
New Zealanders can typically never aspire to ref the All Blacks, due to World Rugby appointing neutral officials for test matches, however the pandemic has caused the need for flexibility.
