The NRL have confirmed Ashley Klein will referee his 21st State of Origin match next Wednesday night.

Klein, who has been rated at the top of the NRL officiating panel for many years, will take charge of the game and in doing so, tie with Bill Harrigan on 21 matches in the interstate battle.

Referees have been constantly under the microscope throughout 2026, and Origin 1 will be no different with plenty of conjecture and question marks around how the six-again rules will be enforced during the game's showpiece event.

Klein will be supported by Chris Butler in the bunker who officiated all three games of last year's series from that chair.

Matt Noyen and Phil Henderson have been named as the touch judges for the series opener, with Henderson a regular at the top end of rugby league officiating in running the sidelines.

State of Origin Game 1 referee appointments

Referee: Ashley Klein
Touch judges: Matt Noyen and Phil Henderson
Bunker official: Chris Butler

The game will be played next Wednesday night at Accor Stadium in Sydney.

2 COMMENTS

  1. Now for Slater thanks for picking the kiwi fullback in what use to be a team full of Queensland kids, this rule is so much bigger then they’d ever think. Aussie kids will now be even more pushed side for the big islander kid, iv seen it happen to my kid and other thought the years of footy. This rule will kill the Australian teams dominants in time, we will have very small percentage of Australian kids in the origin, and all other nations will become stronger from playing origin which will leaves the Aussie kids behind . Origin was one sacred to the Queensland and New South Wales kid, now as Aussie we are losing everything in this country. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BLACK YELLOW IS NOW HAPPENING TO THE WHITE YELLOW AND ITS GETTING TAKEN OVER BY ALL THE OTHER COUNTRYS. Aussie prides gone, the government care more about everybody else then people from this country. And now its starting to work on the sports side of things doesn’t help 1 of the blokes running the game is from South Africa a huge rugby union country.