Red card starts refereeing career
James Bolabiu of Fiji is a young referee going places, many places. Ay present he is in South Africa, developing a career which started with a red card.
James Matakinaseneti Bolabiu was born on Kadavu Island, Fiji, in 1983. Matakinaseneti? It was the name for a senator for their area who was elected on the day James was born. James grew up at Pacific Harbour some 20 km from the capital Suva. Pacific Harbour is the centre of Suva’s tourism, on the beautiful Coconut Coast.
He played rugby at school, a small boy playing flyhalf. He says by way of background to what happened, refereeing in Fiji was not greatly developed. He and some other boys got a Sevens team for a tournament with James as the captain. At one stage their opponents footed through towards their goal-line. James fell back and kicked the ball dead. The referee had been about 20 metres behind play. He came puffing up and awarded a try. James queried the decision and the referee hauled out a yellow card and showed it to him at a time when cards of that nature were just coming into use. James continued the objection, using bad language and telling the referee he was lazy. The referee then brandished a red card.
James sat out for the rest of the tournament, feeling lost and embarrassed. His embarrassment increased when his father, who was on the board of the Fiji Rugby, gave expression to his anger.
In the midst of advice given him James decided that it would be appropriate for him to learn the laws of the game. He then went up to the University of South Pacific to study law. (“It’s on hold now.”) At the university he met a group of young referees and decided to put his earlier thought into practice by going off to a referees’ meeting at the Marist school . They all seemed so old – 30 and more!
He slipped in at the back but was noticed and told to stand up and introduce himself. He did not feel all that welcome. “They were of the mentality that thought you should finish playing before you started refereeing.”
Undaunted James would go to meetings each Tuesday though little was done to develop referees. Talk was mainly about appointments. But then a referee withdrew from a Sevens tournament and James was allowed to be a touch judge. That went well enough for him to join a fitness test. He beat them all. They then pout him on the touch judge panel.
That was in 2003. In 2004 James refereed Fiji’s club final.
Since then he has been to the Under-19 World Championship in Belfast, the Junior World Champion ship in Wales and all over with the Sevens World Series. He refereed the final of the Pacific Nations Cup between the Maori and Australia A. “That was tough, my first big game at that level. It was a great experience, a good testing ground with lots of challenges. I learnt a lot and the performance reviewer’s report was happy.”
Much of the help James has got has been from the IRB, and Australia and New Zealand have helped, sending coaches to Fiji – coaching coaches to develop referees. He says that the structures in Fijian rugby are developing well.
Going to South Africa is an IRB initiative. He is hoping that it will give him good exposure in the land of the World Champions and he hoped top learn from mother referees. He has so far had no experience of the experimental law variations but that is certainly on his agenda.
Expectations? “I hope that I will be a better match official when I go back home.” He is happy with whatever matches South Africa gives him but most of all he is looking forward to meeting André Watson, obviously his refereeing hero.
James is a semi-professional referee. Being unmarried makes that easier. The future? “I’ll see where refereeing is going to take me.” But he would hope that a post could be created for a referee development officer.
Age is on his side.
