Ref awards for Jackson

This year has been a good one for him - his first Super Rugby game, the Junior World Championship in the Cape and his first Tests.

A their annual awards ceremony in Auckland, Glen Jackson, formerly an outstanding player, received the award for Referee of the Year. It is second such award recently.

The 37-year-old enjoyed a great playing career as a creative flyhalf, playing for Bay of Plenty, the Chiefs, the New Zealand Maori when they won the Churchill Cup, Saracens and the Barbarians (British).

While at Saracens in North London, he started refereeing with the Hertfordshire Referees' Society. In 2010 he returned to New Zealand and has been both fast-tracked and looked after in the development of his refereeing career.

This year has been a good one for him - his first Super Rugby game, the Junior World Championship in the Cape and his first Tests.

His first Test was at Twickenham. What a great place to start. That was when England played Fiji after which he went off to Tblisi to referee Georgia vs Japan. He also had international experience as an assistant referee at several tests.

At the end of last month, the Maori had their sports awards function. They had an award for the match official of the year, and there were three candidates - Amber Church (hockey, Dwayne Paul (netball) and Jackson. The award went to Jackson, which men as that he both played for the MaorI and received their referees' award.