Community
Paddy O’Brien is mostly known in Southland as a professional rugby referee and chair of the Invercargill Licensing Trust.
But he has another very important role nationally, that aligns with New Zealand Police, where he was once a Detective.
Patron for Recruitment Wing 370 at the New Zealand Police College, Paddy is responsible for mentoring a group of new recruits and helping them get ready for their big role.
Other well-known New Zealand role models such as former All Black Michael Jones are also patrons.
Paddy was recently invited to speak at a powhiri in July and will make two more visits with the recruits before they graduate in October.
A recruit of Wing 72 when he graduated from NZ Police College in 1978, he left the force in 1995 and a year later he became the world’s first professional rugby referee.
Paddy says he loved being in the Police but the timing of him leaving was the correct call, and luckily it coincided with rugby a year later becoming professional, and him being near the top of the refereeing tree.
In his speech to the NZ Police College, Paddy reinforced the need for new recruits to remember to take their uniform off at the end of the day, because the job can make you insular.
In fact, such is the great camaraderie from the job, Paddy still plays golf and has a beer with former cop friends from back in the day regularly, along with existing ones.
Paddy is currently World Rugby’s high performance Sevens Referee Manager, but once graced our television screens most Saturdays for NPC and Super Rugby matches.
Referring 220 first class matches, he was involved in 117 provincial rugby matches, 52 Super Rugby Matches and 51 internationals to be precise.
Many of the younger generation, particularly some of the new police recruits, would have no idea who Paddy O’Brien is – but to those who have been around long enough, the Southland-based international referee spent just as much time in the limelight, than some of our stand out players themselves.