Paul Williams (born 11 April 1985) is a professional

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 its m ...

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...

from

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 ...

who currently referees in the

Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Building on various Southern Hem ...

competition and in international test matches. Williams started refereeing in 2011 while still playing at halfback at club level and was appointed to the

High Performance referee squad in 2014. He quickly rose up the domestic ranks of refereeing, ultimately becoming a full-time referee on the Super Rugby panel in 2016, the first ever from

Taranaki Taranaki is a region in the west of New Zealand's North Island. It is named after its main geographical feature, the stratovolcano of Mount Taranaki, also known as Mount Egmont. The main centre is the city of New Plymouth. The New Plymouth Dist ...

. Williams refereed the 2016 World Rugby U20 Championship final between England and Ireland. In June 2017, Williams took charge of his first international test match, the clash between

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

and

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

in Singapore. 2018 saw Williams referee eight

matches as well as three further Tier 1 tests. Williams was selected to referee at 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 ...

in Japan. Williams was the first New Zealand born referee to officiate an All Blacks’ test in 40 years when he controlled the first match of the 2020 Bledisloe Cup series at Sky Stadium in Wellington On 10 October.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Paul 1985 births Living people People from Taranaki New Zealand rugby union referees Rugby World Cup referees People educated at Francis Douglas Memorial College Super Rugby referees