South African Jaco Peyper has been appointed to referee his first Super rugby final.
Peyper has risen through the ranks over the past two years and will get the whistle for the big game between the Highlanders and Hurricanes in Wellington on Saturday night.
He will be assisted on the sidelines by Glen Jackson and Craig Joubert. Ben Skeen is the television match official.
Peyper (35) actually had a warm-up for the match when he officiated the game between the two teams in the regular round in Napier last month.
He blew only 14 penalties in a wide open game in which plenty of tries were scored.
That was the only time he has refereed either team this season.
Peyper cuts a relaxed character on the field and should help make the game an entertaining spectacle, although finals tend to be pretty tight with plenty of emphasis on defence.
Meanwhile, the Hurricanes will release 5000 more tickets for the game today, including 1700 from newly constructed temporary seats.
Of those tickets, 2000 of them will be sold at Te Papa and will have to be bought in person. Those tickets will be limited to two per person.
The Hurricanes have come under fire after many fans missed out in the initial release of tickets.
The tickets will go on sale electronically at 9am and can be bought in Dunedin but are expected to sell out in super quick time.
The first batch of tickets released on Monday, all 26,000 of them, sold out in under a minute.
The weather forecast for Wellington on Saturday is for cloudy periods and showers fading during the day.
It is Wellington, so a wind is expected.