Wanted: More Referees in SA
South African Rugby Union (SARU) manager of referees André Watson said on Wednesday that promising young South African referees had an outstanding chance of officiating at the highest level once they had taken up the whistle.
Watson made the promise during the Under-18 Craven Week in East London as he appealed to rugby enthusiasts with a passion for the game to consider taking up refereeing.
Watson said: “We are on an aggressive programme to recruit newcomers to the refereeing ranks. Once we have the person on board, I am very confident that we have the correct structures and training programmes in place to get promising youngsters to the top. The fact that four referees out of 20 on the International Rugby Board’s Test panel come from South Africa is evidence enough of the refereeing talent we have in this country.”
Watson said that more referees are needed in local rugby – specifically for school and club matches: “I’m not trying to place the role of referees higher than that of players but without a competent and knowledgeable whistleblower in the middle, the game can’t get underway.”
South African referees are world leaders. Watson himself refereed two Rugby World Cup finals while Jonathan Kaplan, who started refereeing as a schoolboy 26 years ago, is currently the world’s most capped Test referee and recently officiated in his 52nd match. Mark Lawrence, Craig Joubert and Marius Jonker are the other SA referees on the IRB Test Panel. Several others have refereed Tests – Willie Roos, Pro Legoete, Kim Smit and Eugenia Daniels amongst current referees. Beyond that the IRB has now established specialised assistant referees and television match officials. Shaun Veldsman and Johann Meuwesen, both former Test referees, are IRB TMOs and Cobus Wessels is a specialised assistant, a category which is likely to grow. In addition the IRB has a panel of officials to assess referees. They include Tappe Henning and Dennis Immelman. Henning is also on the IRB’s selection panel which chooses and appoints referees to international matches.
Watson added: “We have a well-structured approach to developing referees and make use of the most up-to-date IRB training materials.
“Once newcomers have completed the various courses and begin to referee in school and club games, their future is really in their own hands – dependant on their desire and willingness to put in the hard graft.
“There are about 1500 registered referees in the country but if we want to have a trained and knowledgeable official in every game we need about 6 000 more.”
For further information with regards to the Referee Recruitment Campaign contact your local rugby union or call the referee hotline at 0861 referee / 0861 733 733 or e-mail refs@live.co.za .
Just recently two well known players, Glenn Jackson and Chris Horsman, the Wales prop, have taken to refereeing. Jackson, a former Super rugby player, has become a professional referee in New Zealand.
