The long arm of the ... ref | Canterbury Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Canterbury

Vinny Munro is expert at laying down the law ? on and off the rugby field.

The 38-year-old referee made a big step up in his rugby career this month, signing a five-month professional contract for the Air New Zealand Cup.

He's quickly been rewarded with his first international appointments for the matches in Sydney between Australia A and Tonga tonight (touch judge) and Australia and Wales tomorrow night (TV match official).

The NZRU contract means relinquishing his job as the Merivale-Papanui community constable until November.

"The police have been excellent as an employer to see this go through, and it's a positive thing for them to show you can be a policeman and also do outside interests," he said.

He's not the first cop to be a whistle-blower on Saturdays, and believes the two jobs have a lot in common.

"As a police officer the beauty is you don't know what you're going to do for the day, cos anything can happen.

And it's the ability to react and assess the situation and make the appropriate decision, very much like rugby.

"Something happens on the field ? you react and make the right decision. I reckon they run hand in hand."

Mean-spirited fans might suggest there are other things police and refs have in common, but no knowledgeable local fan would dispute that Munro's rugby promotion is well overdue.

The highly-regarded ref has certainly served a solid apprenticeship.

As a fullback he played a couple of games for South Canterbury B and in two Timaru finals for Pleasant Point.

And if we can finger a ref for bias, there's certainly some satisfaction when he notes that Pleasant Point finally won the final at their 11th attempt two years ago.

While playing in South Canterbury he also refereed from when he was 15, and carried on both interests when he played social rugby in Christchurch after being posted here in 1992 when he graduated from police college.

He stopped playing to concentrate on refereeing in 1996, and is now near the rare refereeing milestone of 100 Metro club games.

Since being appointed to the national squad in 2001 he has refereed in every division two and three centre, and took last year's Lochore Cup final between King Country and Poverty Bay.

Heartland matches were a great way to see the country and mingle with the people, he said. And one venue, he admitted, was even interesting from a police perspective.

Last season he made his top division refereeing debut with Otago V Hawkes Bay at Carisbrook, and also got Taranaki V Northland in New Plymouth, and his handling of those matches paved the way for him to be one of three refs given five-month pro contracts this month.

Munro furthered his experience on the line and as TV official in Super 14 this year. He was a TJ for the first three rounds in South Africa, including the preview of the Sharks-Bulls final in the first round in Durban.

At the other end of the season he had a challenging finish as video ref for the Crusaders-Chiefs, with McCaw's last gasp try and Sweeney's disallowed try.

"I'd gone four games (as a TMO) with one very simple decision and the last game I got those two gnarly ones ? and at the end of the season when everything's so crucial!" he said.

Now he's looking forward to the NPC.

"We've got five guys away, after week four they go to the World Cup, so a few of us there have got an opportunity to perform," he said.

Away from football and work, Munro has seven and five-year-old sons, already both playing at Belfast, to keep him busy.

He's on the committee of the Banks Peninsula Trotting Club, and over the years has had harness and galloping horses and a greyhound ? and wins in all three codes.

At present he has a holding in a two-year-old pacer. The name is appropriate ? Colin Meads.