Paul Williams joined New Zealand's high-performance squad in 2014, which thrust him on to the Mitre10 Cup stage.
A former player, Williams has sound tactical knowledge and took up refereeing at a junior level in 2011 while still playing scrumhalf for Southern.
He joined the Super Rugby panel for the 2016 season and refereed 5 matches in his debut year and followed this up with 6 matches in 2017.
In June of 2018 he took charge of the second test between Australia and Ireland in Melbourne and added two more tests, England vs Japan and Scotland vs Argentina during November of that year.
In 2019 he had a busy Super Rugby schedule as well making his 6 Nations debut when England hosted Scotland at Twickenham Stadium on the 16th March.
Williams was selected to referee at the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan.
In 2020 he will establish himself as a core Super Rugby referee and furthered his international experience when he referees Scotland v France in the 2020 Six Nations.
Williams won the New Zealand Referee of the Year Award for the second year in a row in 2020 with Covid-19 restrictions in place, Williams also became the first New Zealand referee to control an All Blacks fixture in 40 years when he refereed the All Blacks vs Australia Test in Wellington in October.
JW DEC 2020
