Paddy O'Brien : Whistle While You Work

Players and spectators want the rugby referee to be No 31, not No 1, which is why Southlander Paddy O'Brien has been such a popular adjudicator since he broke into top-level refereeing almost a decade ago. At 42, O'Brien claims more than 160 first-class appointments, including 21 tests. Ranked among the top echelon of referees in the world, he has controlled World Cup events, Six Nations fixtures and had charge of the deciding Australia-British Lions test in Sydney in 2001. Having refereed every major rugby nation in the world, O'Brien is in a unique position to expound on the game and its personalities, which he intends to do in his biography. One game about which he particularly wants to set the record straight is the France-Fiji World Cup encounter at Toulouse in 1999, for which he received a shellacking. It is the one black spot in an otherwise distinguished refereeing career - and one that Paddy will talk frankly about. Seldom has New Zealand had a more popular, internationally-rated referee ...and seldom have they been so marvellously unobtrusive both on and off the field.