Glen Warwick Jackson (born 23 October 1975 in

Feilding Feilding ( mi, Aorangi) is a town in the Manawatū District of the North Island of New Zealand. It is located on State Highway 54, 20 kilometres north of Palmerston North. The town is the seat of the Manawatū District Council. Feilding has ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

) is a professional full-time referee for

New Zealand Rugby New Zealand Rugby (NZR) is the governing body of rugby union in New Zealand. It was founded in 1892 as the New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZRFU), 12 years after the first provincial unions in New Zealand. In 1949 it became an affiliate to t ...

. Jackson is also a former New Zealand

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

player. During his playing career, he was a

first five-eighth In the game of rugby union, there are 15 players on each team, comprising eight forwards (wearing jerseys numbered 1–8) and seven backs (numbered 9–15). In addition, there may be up to eight replacement players "on the bench", numbered 16– ...

. Domestically, he represented

Bay of Plenty The Bay of Plenty ( mi, Te Moana-a-Toi) is a region of New Zealand, situated around a bight of the same name in the northern coast of the North Island. The bight stretches 260 km from the Coromandel Peninsula in the west to Cape Runaw ...

and Waikato in the NPC and the Saracens in the UK's Guinness Premiership. His strong performances saw him named in the Chiefs squad for the 1999 Super Rugby season and had international experience as well with New Zealand Māori (now known as the

Māori All Blacks The Māori All Blacks, previously called the New Zealand Maori, New Zealand Maoris and New Zealand Natives, are a rugby union team from New Zealand. They are a representative team of the New Zealand Rugby Union, and a prerequisite for playing i ...

) and the

Barbarians A barbarian (or savage) is someone who is perceived to be either uncivilized or primitive. The designation is usually applied as a generalization based on a popular stereotype; barbarians can be members of any nation judged by some to be les ...

Playing career

Jackson was part of the 2004 Bay of Plenty Steamers team when they won the

Ranfurly Shield The Ranfurly Shield, colloquially known as the Log o' Wood, is a trophy in New Zealand's domestic rugby union competition. First played for in 1904, the Shield is based on a challenge system. The holding union must defend the shield in challeng ...

. He made his debut for the Chiefs in the opening round of the

1999 Super 12 season The 1999 Super 12 season was the fourth season of the Super 12, contested by teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The season ran from February to May 1999, with each team playing all the others once. At the end of the regular sea ...

. Jackson made his final appearance for the Chiefs in a 2004 Super 12 semi-final defeat to the

Brumbies The ACT Brumbies (known from 2005–2022 as simply the Brumbies) is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (ACT), The team competes in Super Rugby and named for the brumby, feral horses whi ...

. Jackson was a member of the New Zealand Māori side that won the

2004 Churchill Cup The 2004 Churchill Cup was held between 14 June and 21 June 2004 in Calgary and Edmonton, Canada. It was the second edition of the Churchill Cup competition. The three original rugby union teams taking part in the men's competition: Canada, Engla ...

. He signed for Saracens in 2004. In 2007 he was voted

The Professional Rugby Players' Association The Rugby Players Association (RPA) is a trade union representing athletes who currently play or have played rugby union in England at a professional or semi-professional level. The RPA is the representative body and collective voice of profession ...

player of the year after being leading points scorer in the 2006–07 Guinness Premiership. In 2009 he played for the

. Jackson played his final game for Saracens against Leicester Tigers in the final of the 2009–10 Guinness Premiership.

Refereeing career

In 2010 Jackson retired to become a professional referee in his native New Zealand. He was fast-tracked into the professional rugby ranks by Lyndon Bray, then the head of referees for the

New Zealand Rugby Union New Zealand Rugby (NZR) is the governing body of rugby union in New Zealand. It was founded in 1892 as the New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZRFU), 12 years after the first provincial unions in New Zealand. In 1949 it became an affiliate to t ...

(now known as New Zealand Rugby) and later in the same role with SANZAAR, organiser of Super Rugby and The Rugby Championship (formerly the Tri Nations). Within a year of Jackson's return to New Zealand, he went from refereeing provincial rugby games in the

Heartland Championship The Heartland Championship competition, known for sponsorship reasons as the Bunnings Warehouse Heartland Championship, is a domestic rugby union competition in New Zealand. It was founded in 2006 as one of two successor competitions to the countr ...

to officiating in the ITM Cup at the top provincial level to being an assistant referee in Super Rugby competition. By the end of the

2011 Super Rugby season The 2011 Super Rugby season was the first season of the new 15-team format for the Super Rugby competition, which involved teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Including its past iterations as Super 12 and Super 14, this was the 16t ...

, he had worked his first match as referee in that competition, having presided over the

Hurricanes A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

−

Western Force The Western Force is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Perth, Western Australia, currently competing in Super Rugby Pacific. They previously played in Super Rugby from 2006 until they were axed from the competition in 2017. F ...

match on 27 May. Shortly after the end of that season, he made his international officiating debut as television match official for the

Bledisloe Cup The Bledisloe Cup is an annual rugby union competition originally staged between the national teams of Australia's Wallabies and New Zealand's All Blacks that has been contested since the 1930s. The frequency that the competition is held has va ...

Test between

and Australia on 6 August. On 15 February 2015 he made his Six Nations refereeing debut when he took charge of the Scotland-Wales match at Murrayfield. Jackson was the first New Zealander to play and referee 100 first class fixtures when he took charge of the Argentina v South Africa match on 15 August 2015. He retired as a referee after he was not selected for the

2019 Rugby World Cup The 2019 Rugby World Cup was the ninth edition of the Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's rugby union teams. It was hosted in Japan from 20 September to 2 November in 12 venues all across the country. The opening match ...

Coaching career

In September 2020, Jackson was appointed as one of the assistants to Fiji head coach

Vern Cotter Vern is a masculine given name, often a short form (hypocorism) of Vernon, Lavern or other names. People named Vern include: * Vernon Vern Bakalich (1929–2015), New Zealand rugby league player * Verdi Vern Barberis (1928–2005), Australian ...

References

External links

Saracens profilePlayer profile from allblacks.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, Glen 1975 births Barbarian F.C. players Bay of Plenty rugby union players Chiefs (rugby union) players Living people Ngāi Tahu people Māori All Blacks players New Zealand rugby union players New Zealand rugby union referees New Zealand expatriate sportspeople in England Rugby union fly-halves Saracens F.C. players People educated at Otumoetai College People from Feilding Super Rugby referees The Rugby Championship referees Six Nations Championship referees