Three Bay of Plenty Rugby referees have been selected for the National Refereeing Squad for the upcoming FPC, Heartland and NPC seasons.

They are Nick Briant, Andy Morton and Tiana Ngawati.

Briant returns for his 14th consecutive season on the national panel and with only six matches away from reaching his 200th 1st class appointment, he will be looking for a good start when the NPC kicks off on the 7th August.

Briant, who controlled the last two NPC Premiership finals, is joined in the National Squad by Englishman Andy Morton, arrived in December 2021 to New Zealand with his partner and Black Ferns Physio to the Bay of Plenty.

Morton, who came with a big reputation has made an immediate impact in the Farmlands Baywide Premier Mens competition, demonstrating a number of high performance traits that NZR are looking for.

A heavily pregnant Tiana Ngawati was also named in this years squad but will start maternity leave from her GM High Performance role with Bay of Plenty Rugby on Friday, July 9.

'We are all extremely happy for our three members Tiana, Nick and Andy on being selected. It demonstrates that we have some quality members of our club and we will celebrate their selection with pride,” says Bay of Plenty Rugby Referees Club chairperson David Hodgson.

'We also celebrate two of our former club members George Haswell and Taneika Uerata who moved south to Christchurch for work and study a couple of years ago who have also been named in the squad.”

The 2022 New Zealand referee high performance squad is:

Jono Bredin (Hawke's Bay)
Nick Briant (Bay of Plenty)
Stu Catley (Hawke's Bay)
Maggie Cogger-Orr (Auckland)
Stu Curran (Manawatu)
Erin Doherty* (Otago)
James Doleman (Otago)
Mike Fraser (Wellington)
Natarsha Ganley (North Harbour)
Fraser Hannon (Otago)
George Haswell (Canterbury)
Jackson Henshaw (South Canterbury)
Nick Hogan (Hawke's Bay)
Lauren Jenner (Counties Manukau)
Will Johnston* (Taranaki)
Angus Mabey (Auckland)
Georgia Mason* (Southland)
Daniel Moore (Canterbury)
Andrew Morton* (Bay of Plenty)
Tiana Ngawati (Bay of Plenty)
Ben O'Keeffe (Horowhenua Kapiti)
Brendon Pickerill (North Harbour)
Marcus Playle (Auckland)
Cam Stone (Taranaki)
Taneika Uerata (Canterbury)
Dan Waenga (Hawke's Bay)
Cassie Watt (Southland)
Paul Williams (Taranaki)
Michael Winter (Waikato)
Larissa Woolerton (Waikato)
Ben Woolerton (Waikato)

*Denotes selection to the squad for the first time.