'Lazarus' Lawrence gets top awards

In 2006 Mark Lawrence seemed dead and about to be buried as a referee. Like Gospel Lazarus, he came back. In 2008 he received both top refereeing awards in South Africa - the Referee of the Year and the Referees' Referee of the Year.

The third award was for the Most Improved Referee of the year and that went to Jason Jaftha of South Western Districts.

In addition JC Fortuin, retiring from refereeing representative matches, received an award for Services to Refereeing.

At the end of 2006 Lawrence had been dropped from the IRB's top panel. He was given the final of the 1st Division of the Currie Cup, and the expectation was that he would referee in 2007 and then fade gently away.

It was a moist distressing time for him, but he gathered up his passion and determination and set about getting things right.

He got things right. In 2007 he refereed the Currie Cup Final and received the award as Referees' Referee Award, a most satisfying award as the voters are his peers and colleagues. In 2008 Lawrence got back onto the IRB's panels, got his first Six Nations appointment, refereed the Final of the Super 14, got a Tri-Nations appointment and was appointed to a top November Test - Ireland vs New Zealand at Croke Park. All that he seemed to miss was the Final of the Currie Cup which Jonathan Kaplan refereed but he was appointed to a semifinal.

The result of all this was the two top refereeing awards at South Africa's glittering award ceremony on Tuesday night - Referee of the Year and Referees' referee of the Year, the latter for the second year running.