Lourens gets his first Test

Lourens van der Merwe has been appointed to his very first Test in a year of exciting developments for the Bloemfontein schoolmaster.

Earlier this year Van der Merwe refereed his first Super Rugby match in Canberra, an excellent start, then the Vodacom Cup Final in Kimberley, then the Junior World Rugby Championship and now a Test.

Van der Merwe was appointed as an assistant referee on Saturday when the Stormers play the Lions with Mark Lawrence as referee.

On Monday he got a call from André Watson, South Africa's refereeing boss, who was at the Under-13 Craven Week. In solemn tones Watson informed Van der Merwe that they were taking him off the line as Francesco Pastrana needed the experience. Van der Merwe was crestfallen, wondering what he had done wrong.

Then Watson said: "You can't run the line because you are doing your first Test."

Afterwards, seriously this time, Watson said: "Lourens is proof of recognition for performance. He deserves it as he was outstanding in Super Rugby and at the Junior World Cup. He has our full support and know that greater things await him."

So on Friday, Lourens and Ben Crouse, his assistant referee, will fly from Johannesburg to Gaberone and on Saturday they will referee a friendly between Botswana and Swaziland.

It may not sound exciting to everybody but for Van der Merwe it is exciting - his first Test.

Everybody starts somewhere. The most capped Test referee is Jonathan Kaplan. His first Test was Zimbabwe vs Namibia, his second Botswana vs Arabian Gulf. Freek Burger counts amongst his Tests Hong Kong vs Papua New Guinea and Watson's last Test, after two World Cup Finals, was Andorra vs Norway. South Africa's Test referee just before Van der Merwe is Jaco Peyper, who refereed three Tests this month, all involving Scotland. His first Test was Kenya vs Zimbabwe. All of those matches are great experiences.

Lourens was 22 when joined the Free State Referees' Society. He had just finished university and was teaching physical science at Grey College. That was in 1999, which means that he has been refereeing for quite some time.

Lourens van der Merwe was born in Pretoria on 3 February, 1977. He was educated at Staatspresident CR Swart High School and then Free State University. He is married to Liena who is expecting their third child. The other two are boys - Llewellyn (5) and WJ (2).