Matsaung - doing his referee bit
One of three ex-players who played provincial rugby and have become referees is Mpho Matsaung of Griqualand West.
Not quite of Griqualand West as he is really from Limpopo and then of Pretoria and then of the East Rand and now of Griquas. And now he is refereeing gently in Griquas, not as ambitiously as the other two, Egon Seconds and Jacques Nieuwenhuis, but with enjoyment – and who knows how deeply the bug will bite.
Born on 6 June 1981 in Musina (formerly Messina) on the Zimbabwe border, Pedi-speaking Mpho Andrea Matsaung, went down to Polokwane for his high school education at Capricorn High where a classmate was John Mametsa who played Super Rugby for the Bulls and many, many provincial matches for the Blue Bulls.
Matsaung and Mametsa were both offered further education through the Limpopo Blue Bulls which included a bursary to the Pretoria Technikon (now known as Tshwane University of Technology). At that time Matsaung strayed away from rugby. A bit small for a wing/fullback he drifted to soccer but was back at rugby fairly soon, playing for the Blue Bulls Amateur team and then in 2002 for the Blue Bulls Under-21 team as a scrumhalf. But Fourie du Preez was the scrumhalf and so Matsaung spent most of the time in the bench or out of the team.
In 2003 Matsaung played for the Blue Bulls in the Reserve Competition which had the most bizarre ending of any provincial competition in South Africa. The competition existed as a compensation for the disappearance of eight provinces and the waning interest in club players in the professional era. The competition started in 1996 and was variously known as the President's Shield, Merit A, SA Cup and then Reserve. In the final in 2003 Matsaung scored a try, one of 15 tries the Blue Bulls scored in winning 104-24 against Boland Cavaliers.
At this stage, for three years in fact, Matsaung had a professional player's contract with the Blue Bulls and was playing for TUT (Tshwane University of Technology) who won the Carlton League and the National Club Championship. In addition he was voted TUT's Player of the Year in 2003 and received an award for Outstanding Service in the Field of Rugby.
In 2005 he was chosen on the wing for SA Students in their match at Ellis Park against the African Leopards, a team chosen for the first time by the Confederation of African Rugby with Morné Steyn at flyhalf and Heinke van der Merwe at prop, two of six South Africans in the team chosen from 10 countries. Matsaung was on the left wing for the Students with Pierre Spies of Tukkies on the right wing and Naas Olivier at flyhalf. Matsaung and Spies each scored a try, two of their side's four tries, in the Students' 30-15 win.
In 2006 the Valke were in the Premier Division of the Currie Cup and had two new coaches – John Williams, the coach at the Blue Bulls but before that a Blue Bulls forward, and Naas Botha. And so Matsaung went down to the Valke. From 2006 to 2008 and he was in the Valke Currie Cup side. In addition in 2007 he was part of the Sevens Springbok squad and played with other Sevens Springboks and rugby internationals from other countries in the Christina Noble Invitational team in the IRB Sevens Series in Dubai.
In his three seasons he played 39 times for the Valke. The highlight was undoubtedly the victory over Western Province in 2008, after which the Valke lost nine consecutive matches and the union decided that in 2009, there would be no contracted players. That meant that Matsaung ended his career as a professional rugby player at the end of the 2008 season with the Valke.
When he was playing for the Valke, Jacques Nieuwenhuis was his captain – later a player at the World Cup and now an enthusiastic referee.
Matsaung then headed to the Blue Bulls in an administrative capacity and for three seasons played for their Amateur team. From there he migrated to Griquas as the union's manager of amateur rugby. As part of his work, he decided to referee and, advised, encouraged and helped by Kat Swanepoel, the chairman of Griquas referees, he went down to the Referees Academy in Stellenbosch where studied the laws, wrote their exam and learnt about the ways of referees. In 2015, back in Kimberley, he moved from refereeing schools to refereeing clubs. Just recently he refereed his first senior club match.
So far Matsaung has found refereeing "interesting". "There is so much to watch for and so much of it is psychological. I have learnt the importance of putting your foot down early on.
"I am enjoying refereeing but at present I have no ambition to go beyond what I am doing now."
It will be interesting to see if it stays that way.
