Otago Rugby Football Union referee education officer James Doleman has become a professional referee as he continues his climb up the pecking order.
Otago Rugby Referees Association chairman Chris Hart has also been promoted and he will become one of four television match officials around the country.
Doleman started his refereeing career in the South when studying at the University of Otago. He impressed while here as a student and swiftly moved up the ranks. He arrived in Dunedin in 2010 after a broken collarbone had ended his chance of playing rugby.
He ended up refereeing premier club matches a year after he started as a referee in 2010 and made his first-class debt in 2014, in a Heartland Championship match between Wairarapa-Bush and Mid Canterbury at Masterton which ended in a 23-23 draw.
He then moved to the sevens circuit and has become a regular fixture in the World Rugby Sevens Series, often being the man in the middle for the final.
He was an official at the sevens circuit in Cape Town over the weekend.
He also went to the World Junior Championships in Argentina this year and was good enough to referee the final between France and Australia. He refereed matches in the Mitre 10 Cup this year.
With his promotion, he will become a fulltime referee so Otago will be looking for a new referee education officer.
New Zealand Rugby said in a statement Doleman would not be referring Super Rugby games but would be an assistant referee for these games, as he had been previously.
He has long been tipped as a referee of high promise and his father was a referee.
Doleman, who is in his late 20s, is getting married this weekend to Erin Smyth, in Tauranga.
Hart had won promotion to become just one of four television match officials around the country. He has been the television match official for many games in the past few seasons at Forsyth Barr Stadium and had previously played for Buller and Canterbury B.
Hart will join Glenn Newman, Aaron Peterson and Shane McDermott in the TMO roles.
Former referee Ben Skeen was a television match official but he has retired to concentrate on his job as an associate headmaster at Auckland Grammar.
Otago maintains Jono Bredin in the national squad, while Stu Curran remains in the national squad, though he has finished his medical studies and has returned home to Manawatu. He will be representing Manawatu this season.
Both Bredin and Curran made their first-class debuts last season.
North Otago referee Nick Webster drops out of the national referees squad.
