Husband, wife and referees
On 27 March 2010 Pieter de Villiers and Madél Herselman were married. That happens to lots of people but less often to referees, both of them on provincial panels of South African Referees’ Association. In South Africa they are unique – husband and wife referees.
Pieter, who had coached the Randfontein Under-19 side with his dad in 1999 and won the Golden Lions league with a 100% winning streak, started refereeing with the Golden Lions Referees’ Society in 2000 and moved up quickly through the ranks to Pirates (First) league in late 2003. Being a successful businessman and outcome driven, he was not satisfied with only that achievement and he progressed onto SARU’s Contenders Panel in 2009 and then this year to the Provincial Panel.
In 2004 he started on the road to a different panel, for that year, while refereeing a club match, he met a fellow referee Madél Herselman who was to become his wife.
Madél was born in Port Elizabeth. In 1998 she wanted to start refereeing and contacted Freek Burger who was South Africa’s refereeing manager. He suggested she join the Eastern Province Referees’ Society, which she did at the age of only 16. In that year, too, Jenny Bentel became a referee, which made them the first two women referees in South Africa.
In 2000, the year Pieter started refereeing, she got onto women’s panels when she was studying sports management and marketing at Port Elizabeth Technicon. In 2004 she started working at the Golden Lions rugby union’s referees department and refereeing in the province – and meeting her husband-to-be. At present she is the second ranked Women’s referee in South Africa after Roslyn Fortuin.
Of course, the newly webs talk rugby and refereeing, encouraging each other, helping each other to prepare for matches but not in competition with each other. They both love the outdoors and enjoy hunting, golf and action sports.
What do they want out of refereeing?
Pieter says: “Well, the most important thing for me is the camaraderie between referees, the lifelong friends you make and the passion we share, referees are a different breed, you have to be nuts to go out every Saturday to be verbally abused only to return the following week!”
Madél says: “Friendships made though the years are priceless – not only referees but players as well – refereeing also took me to places I would have never gone to myself. And I met my husband through refereeing.”
