Sydney - Disgraced referee Steve Walsh is back in rugby and hopes to be involved in next year’s Super 14.

Walsh’s contract with the NRZU was terminated after a number of drinking incidents, but now he is off the bottle and has been snapped up by Australia. He has refereed three club matches in Sydney and hopes to be back in the Super 14 by next year.

‘It’s difficult when you get given the flick,’ Walsh told the Sunday Star Times. ’But I believe I’ve relied on my natural ability as a referee and haven’t made the sacrifices I needed to make. (However) I finally woke up last year to the fact I had a problem.’

Walsh said his road to sobriety will make him a better person and better referee.

‘I don’t believe I’ve put the things in place in the past that were going to let me do that. The drinking has got a lot to do with that. I really want to come over here and make a statement with my performance,’ he said.

‘I’m good enough on the park, but it’s just making sure I pull my head in off it.’

Walsh doesn’t want to hold any bitterness towards rugby officials in his home country for the treatment he received, but admitted he would like to prove them wrong.

‘It’s not really a thing I should be thinking of, but the God’s honest truth is yes (I want to prove them wrong)‘.