Lourens van der Merwe of Bloemfontein is in Canberra to referee his very first SuperRugby match between two high-flying sides - the home Brumbies who are joint top of the Australian conference, and the visiting Highlanders, who are top of the New Zealand conference. Talk about starting at the top!

Mark Lawrence was originally appointed to the match but had to withdraw and Van der Merwe was appointed in his place, with eager backing from SANZAR's referee boss, Lyndon Bray, who foresees a great future for Van der Merwe in refereeing.

Van der Merwe himself is excited at the prospect, saying: "This appointment obviously means at this stage everything to me, but I also realise that this appointment is only the next step to get to the top."

The young man has ambition and he is also aware that he does not act alone: "My whole career has happened only because of God's Grace! There are so many variables in refereeing, His grace is the only constant!"

He is also fortunate to have experienced Marius Jonker as an asssitant referee.

Van der Merwe is no refereeing novice. Born and educated in Pretoria he went to the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein and started refereeing there.

A member of the Free State Referees' Society saw him refereeing an Under-19C schools match and took him along to a society meeting in 1999. Van der Merwe joined the society and his promotion was rapid - first match in 2000, first national week in 2001, onto SA Referees' panels in 2002 and onto the top panel in South Africa in 2010. This has had him refereeing Currie Cup rugby, including matches like Western Province vs Sharks at Newlands and the 2011 Final of the Division One of the Currie Cup.

Now, after refereeing for 12 full seasons, he is breaking into SuperRugby, and grateful for all the help he had along the way, local and national. He has had a taste of SuperRugby as an assistant referee at home and abroad but this is the big thing. He is one of five referees being introduced into Super Rugby this year. 

And he still lives in Bloemfontein.

Lourens van der Merwe was born in Pretoria on 3 February 1977 and educated at Hoërskool Staatspresident CR Swart before going down to Free State University. Now he has been teaching physical science at Grey College and been involved in the rugby for the last six years. He is married to beautiful Liena, who runs her own drama school in Bloemfontein, and the father of five-year-old Llewellyn and one-year-old WJ.

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