HIGH ACHIEVERS: Shoulder tap brought Maggie Cogger-Orr into rugby and eventually onto a path to being an elite referee

By Martin Cleary

Maggie Cogger-Orr approaches life from a unique perspective – she sees a challenge, is uncertain if she can do it, but just does it.

“I’ve always been someone who likes to ‘do’ what I shouldn’t be able to,” Cogger-Orr revealed in a recent email interview from her home in Auckland, New Zealand.

Let’s play boys’ tackle football for the Ashbury College Colts. So, she did for all four years on the junior or senior teams against the wishes of her mother.

Let’s play boys’ hockey in the National Capital Secondary School Athletic Association contact league. So, she did for three years until the Ashbury program was cancelled in her senior year because of a lack of players.

Let’s create a spur-of-the-moment hockey league, since Ashbury had already booked two hours of ice time for each week in her Grade 12 season. So, she did, recruiting enough student-athletes to form four teams and serving as league convenor, a rotating goaltender and a referee.

Let’s play rugby, another contact sport at Ashbury. So, she did for four years under head coach Jen Boyd, winning four NCSSAA girls’ championships and emerging with three OFSAA AAA/AAAA-division gold medals as well as one silver as a small population A-level school.

Let’s travel halfway around the world to teachers’ college in Christchurch for one year, after graduating from McMaster University with a bachelor degree in commerce. So, she did, but ended up staying for 11 more years and planting deep roots in New Zealand.

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Let’s referee at the highest-possible level. So, she did by using her eight years of on- and off-field experience to eventually oversee significant matches at the Summer Olympics (sevens) in 2024 and in 2021 (delayed from 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic) and 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cups (15s).

Today, Cogger-Orr is one of the top female rugby referees in the world and has had a full-time job with New Zealand Rugby since 2023 with the organization’s Community Rugby team as the inaugural women’s referee development manager. She’s charged with increasing women’s referee opportunities across New Zealand.

She is on the cutting edge of growing an important aspect of rugby by giving players another option to be connected to the game in a country that lives and breathes rugby.

“There’s never been a more exciting time to be involved in women’s rugby,” Cogger-Orr said in a February 2023 New Zealand Rugby press release. “I’ve already hit the ground running so we can make sure our wahine (young women) are aware of the positives refereeing can offer them, on and off the field.

“It’s really important that we make refereeing visible to women and girls and for them to see how much fun refereeing can be as a way to be involved in rugby. A key part of my role will be to ensure women, whether they’re involved in the game or not, see refereeing as an option to them.”

Cogger-Orr was a perfect fit for the job as she was a teacher with eight years of elementary and high school experience as well as being an international referee on the rise with plenty of energy.

She added another golden moment to her refereeing resume this year, when she officiated at her second World Cup. One of 10 female referees for the ultimate women’s 15s championship, she earned the opportunity to oversee one of the two semifinals, when defending champion England overcame long-time rival France 35-17.

The other semifinal saw Canada run past New Zealand 34-19. Cogger-Orr wouldn’t have been considered for that semifinal because of potential conflict of interest as she has connections to both countries.

The decision to referee one of the semifinals was partially based on her World Cup assignments in round-robin pool games between Scotland and Wales, England and Samoa, and Italy and Brazil.

“I refereed all three rounds of the pool play (and) these games all went quite well,” Cogger-Orr wrote in an email. “No performance of refereeing is ever perfect, but overall I was happy with what I was able to deliver for the teams and that it matched the expectations management had of me.

“Based on games in the last cycle, I knew that I needed to referee, as I had been in order to put myself in contention for knock-out games. We had a really strong and experienced group of referees so it was never a sure thing who would get what game.”

Being able to referee the second semifinal between host England and France in front of more than 25,000 fans in Bristol was beyond belief for her.

“To referee a semifinal that featured England in England was an amazing experience. The France vs. England rivalry is so old and deep that it added another large (aspect) to the game,” Cogger-Orr added.

In the lead up to the World Cup, Cogger-Orr refereed at the 2021 World Cup (the opening match and the quarter-final between England and Australia), the finals of the 2024 and 2025 6 Nations tournaments, the Pacific 4 and the 2024 Paris Olympics (rugby sevens).

“I was super excited to be selected for my second World Cup,” Cogger-Orr continued. “The last time I was very much a rookie, whereas this time there was probably a bit more expectation, but that made it even more special.

“We were selected based on a few factors – obviously our on-field performance in the last cycle, our fitness, our law knowledge and our off-field actions/leadership skills. I’ve been really fortunate in the last cycle to have opportunities to demonstrate these skills to our management.”

Cogger-Orr’s introduction to rugby happened about 19 years ago as a Grade 9 student at Ashbury.

“Ashbury was a big part of me deciding to become a rugby player,” she wrote. “I was there from 2005-09, which was a period of time where the program was very much a dynasty.

“I originally took up playing boys’ football there and then was shoulder tapped by (head coach) Jen Boyd to come and play rugby in the spring. (It was) a moment that definitely changed my life.

“I think playing with such an amazingly talented group of girls and experiencing success definitely pushed me to be involved at the representative levels in the sport.”

And now she’s excelling as a referee and an administrator to continue growing the game.