Banks new referees' boss
This is a post held by André Watson till his unceremonious dismissal, Since then Rassie Erasmus, SARU's generalky manager of the rugby department, has been overseeing refereeing and in fact still the overall boss as Yantolo's refereeing department stays a part of the rugby department and Yantolo reports to Erasmus.
Mzwamadoda Yantolo, generally called Banks, born in Somerset East fifty years ago, has been up till now the principal of a school in the King William's Town area. He and his son and daughter have subsequently moved to Cape Town with his wife to follow, because the referees' department has now been moved from Johannesburg to Cape Town.
Yantolo, a former fullback, started refereeing in 2003, but a knee injury put an end to his career and he has involved himself in assessing and selecting. He has been an keen assessor of South African referees and was then an assessor (performance reviewer) at the 2013 Sevens World Cup in Moscow and World Cup Sevens selector of referees. He has been one of four referee selectors for the World Rugby (formerly IRB) Sevens Series. Of the four two were chosen from the Southern Hemisphere.
Yantolo was one of five South Africans who attended the Sevens World Cup in Moscow. The others were Tappe Henning, an IRB selector and three referees – Rasta Rasivhenge, Marius van der Westhuizen and Marlize Jordaan. The referees all did well. Rasivhenge refereed the men's final. Van der Westhuizen the 3rd/4th play-off which is the match second in importance and Marlize Jordaan refereed the Final of the women's Bowl.
He is thus a man of recognised ability in the world of refereeing.
SA Rugby CEO Jurie Roux said: "“We strive to be the best in every aspect of the game and our referees department certainly forms one of the key elements of the game.
“Over the years we have produced some of the best referees in the world, and by grooming our referees correctly and equipping them with all the necessary skills from understanding and analysing the Laws of the game to writing referee reports, we hope to see many more of our referees being named on World Rugby panels in future.”
On the decision to move the Referees Department into the Rugby Department, Roux said: “If we would like to be the leading rugby nation in the world we need to have the best players, coaches and referees.
“They all work in sync because the referees assist the players with Law interpretation and the correct implementation of the Laws, while our Mobi-Unit coaching team now has direct access to both the players and referees, which will ensure that the department functions optimally.”
The SA Rugby Referees Department kicked off their 2016 season last month with a four-day camp in Cape Town, which featured fitness tests and seminars focusing on the different aspects of the game to ensure that they continue to make their presence felt among the top referees in World Rugby.
The camp included an extensive Rugby Laws examination and was attended by referees, television match officials (TMOs), selectors, coaches and performance reviewers.
At the camp Yantolo played a leading role.
