Ben O’Keeffe started refereeing while at medical school in Dunedin and quickly progressed through the ranks to referee senior and representative rugby in NZ. He made his High Performance Referees Squad debut in 2012 and was another referee to have significant growth in 2016. That same year he went on to make his international debut test when refereeing Samoa v Georgia, most recently refereeing South Africa versus Argentina in The Rugby Championship and then the clash between Wales and Australia and Ireland and the USA last November. He is now an established member of the Super Rugby referee team and will be pushing the more senior referees for more of the marquee matches. He refereed nine matches in 2019 and went on the referee at the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan. He has been appointed to referee Italy v Scotland and England v Wales in the 2020 Six Nations.