Nominated for referee of the year
Eketa¯ huna sheep farmer and international rugby referee Rebecca Mahoney has been nominated for the Referee of the Year at the New Zealand Rugby Union Awards this Thursday.
She is up against referees Ben O’Keefe and Paul Williams, who have just come back from the Men’s World Cup.
“Its been a pretty long 11 months of rugby. This will be a nice end to the season,” said Mahoney.
She has refereed four international games in the last four weeks. In Ireland on November 4 was a test match between Ireland and Wales. Then going across to England she refereed her biggest women’s test match yet, sold out with 20,000 spectators for the England versus France test match.
This was to be the 50th firstclass match refereed by Mahoney.
“I didn’t have any idea until my mentor Harry Quinn mentioned it and New Zealand Rugby confirmed it,” she said. She started refereeing in 2015 and is now the first female in New Zealand and the fourth New Zealander in history to have reffed and played 50 first-class games. In fact Mahoney has played over 100 first-class games but they have only been recognised since 2010.
Heading back to New Zealand, Mahoney refereed two test matches in Fiji from where she has just come. She went from 8 degrees in Ireland to 4 degrees in England, to 35 degrees in Fiji,
“which wasn’t too bad for my suntan,” she said.
“There is a lot more competition, with a lot more people getting into refereeing. I have only been refereeing fifteens matches this year and this has been good for my reffing and my body.”
The achievement of a dream goal was realised when Mahoney reffed the Mitre 10 Cup this year. This had been her biggest goal. But her next goal is to be selected for the Women’s World Cup in 2021.
“She’s a great ambassador for rugby and refereeing,” New Zealand Rugby chief rugby officer Nigel Cass said. “Rebecca is showing there’s a pathway for everyone in refereeing.”
She is waiting for selection for the six nations and will be refereeing the Super Rugby Development Teams next year.
“I have to carry on challenging myself,” she said.