Steve
Walsh

Steve Walsh is a retired rugby referee who officiated some of the game’s biggest matches. Discover his career with RugbyPass, your resident rugby gurus.

Steve Walsh Bio

Thanks to his stellar career as an international rugby referee, Steve Walsh is undoubtedly a legend of the game. When he retired in 2015, he held several records and an impressive standing in the game. Steve Walsh was inducted into the RugbyPass Hall of Fame in 2021.

Born in New Zealand on 28 March 1972, Steve Walsh began playing rugby at a young age. However, a subsequent medical check on a spinal injury ended his promising career at the age of 13.

As a result, at age 16, Steve Walsh began refereeing. Only four years later, he became the youngest official to make his NPC debut.

In 1998, Steve Walsh made his test refereeing debut after taking up officiating on a full-time basis. At the time, he was the youngest test referee at the top level. A year later, he made his Rugby World Cup debut as a touch judge.

Throughout the 2000s, Steve Walsh refereed some of the biggest games in world rugby, including Rugby World Cup games, test matches and British & Irish Lions games. However, he was occasionally involved in controversies. For example, he became involved in verbal altercations on several occasions and was once banned for four months as a result. Plus, in 2008, he was asked to leave a refereeing conference in Sydney when he turned up drunk.

As a result of the incident, Steve Walsh resigned from his refereeing position in New Zealand and moved to Australia. He quickly rose through the pyramid and was reappointed to the IRB Elite panel in 2010. In 2012, he also received the ‘Referee of the Year’ award.

In 2015, Steve Walsh retired from all forms of refereeing so he could pursue business interests outside the game. Upon his retirement, he held the record for the most Super Rugby matches refereed at 111, and the third most test matches refereed at 60.