Report on Exchange with the Valke Referee Society South Africa.

30
th
May to 8
th
June 2014
On short notice the Valke society was able to accommodate me in South Africa for the first week
of June as this was the only time I would be able to arrange leave over the summer. Fortunately
I have a brother who lives in Johannesburg so I was able to stay with him to assist in the
arrangement and reduce my burden on the Valke society.
I departed Hong Kong midnight on the 30
th
May arriving early Saturday morning with little or no
idea of what my schedule would be. I had arranged a hire car in order to be a more independent
and to be able to assist the Valke with my getting to various appointments. I was met at the
airport by Johan Alberts one of their active coaches. He advised we leave my hire car at the
airport and collect it later after the Super 15 match we would attend, he indicated that we
should easily be back by ten pm, at 1.30am we were still in the bar at Coca-Cola park (Ellis Park
rugby ground). After clearing customs we left the airport and headed straight to the nearby
Hans Marais High school to coach three referees who would be on the field for school games. It
was the start of an educational experience that continued for the full week.
Johan a senior coach was inspirational in how he mentored his referees , particularly how from
the sideline he was able to read and interpret a game and to see how a referee was or was not
making the necessary adjustments to his game in order to keep control and ensure compliance.
He introduced me to the Valke way of doing things, including keeping a stats book, reporting on
weaknesses and strengths, and finally rating the referee on his game on a score marked out of
six, any major weakness in any of the major six parameters resulted in a no score, he reports an
average score is three to four.
In the final of the morning between the school First teams I was assigned to run touch which
worked out some of the fatigue of flying for 13 hours, at half time I had to intervene between
the young referee and a disgruntled parent. Abuse is also an issue here in South Africa where
rugby is more like a religion then a passion.
After a morning at the school we left for the home of one of the referees who would be running
touch for the super 15 game, Sieg Van Staden, as he had VIP parking inside the stadium. A quick
toilet break and back into the car and we were on our way into central Johannesburg to watch
the much anticipated Bulls vs the Lions Super game. A few pre match beers and up into the
stands to enjoy a well contested match which much to the Joy of the home fans was one by the
Lions.
Back into the bar for after match drinks at about 6.30 and we were still there come midnight,
eventually having to find a security guard to let us out of the grounds at 1.30am.
Sunday fortunately was a day off, which allowed me to go back to the airport and at least
collect my car.
Monday was a schools tournament evening ,again I accompanied Johan and worked with him to
coach and report on two developing referees, I must say at this stage I was impressed to find
they have many referees within their society that are under 25 and the average age of the
referees I saw was probably less than thirty five. It seems that with several South African
referees having been able to break through and successfully officiate at the highest Test Level it
is recognized in south Africa that the potential to become world class is a strong reality and
developing referees are encouraged to achieve the highest standard at all times.
Tuesday again was a day off. Wednesday I drove out to Vereeniging a small town an hour and
half drive to the south of Johannesburg where I spent the afternoon and evening with Alfred
Voss the President of the Valke rugby Society. We spent the time discussing various issue of
refereeing and the managing of a society. I was amazed that the Valke with a membership of
180 ( 125 Active referees) has an annual budget of just thirty thousand Hong Kong Dollars,
referees have to pay for all their own Kit , Whistles, Cards,flags etc. How they manage to keep
the guys motivated and trained is nothing short of a miracle. For games the user pays, so if they
ref a school game they get paid by the school ($150) etc. It is a tightly managed budget, but
they seem to be able to survive, Just!. Appointments are done much like ours used to be done
with a couple of coaches getting together appointing and drawing up a spread sheet which is
then e mailed to all. Most referees will do a minimum of two games every Saturday, with up to
180 games on a weekend.
Thursday was a day of leisure until 5pm when Johan collected me after work and drove me to a
nearby high school where we were joined by six other referees to complete the Bok Smart
course. Bok Smart is the safety program for rugby which has been developed for south Africa, it
is a compulsory course for all referees, coaches, managers, clubs and schools. Since its inception
4 years ago severe neck injuries have been reduced by 50%, and I believe we in Hong Kong
should be looking closely at offering a similar course. It is an interactive CD based course which
covers everything from fitness, scrumming, tackle technique to correct on field treatment of
possible neck/concussion injuries. The course was very informative and lasted 5 hours. Everyone
who attends the course is registered and receives an identity card with an expiry date; the
course has to be done very three years. If you do not have a current Bok Smart card you are not
permitted to take part in rugby in South Africa.
Friday afternoon I accompanied a performance manager to report on a Currie Cup warm up
match between the Valke and the Pumas, Rasta Rasivhenge was the referee, a familiar face
from the Hong Kong Sevens, He greeted me like an old friend when I was lead into the change
room pre match, and even offered to pay for the beers after the match. It was a close match
which the Valke eventually won and game which Rasta handled easily. The only real criticism of
his match being that he was front running too much, a result of reffing sevens. Unfortunately I
could not stay for the beers, as soon after the game was over we drove to a nearby school to
coach another ref who was doing a schools (U18) first team game. After this game it was back
into Johannesburg for an excellent Steak.
Saturday found me back on the road once more driving to Sasolburg for an event they call a
Classic Clash, an event between the two main High schools in the area that have a massive
rivalry and the annual match between the two first teams is a major event in the calendar.
I coached with Johan the first three games and ran touch for the first team game, About 3
thousand people turned up to the event and it was a closely fought match which Sasolburg High
eventually won.
We then crossed the road and watched a mens league match reffed by a fit 59 year old gent
who has been reffing for twenty years, proudly wearing his special Legends Jersey presented to
members over fifty with more than five years experience.
After that it was back to Johannesburg for a last dinner with my brother before flying back to
Hong Kong the next day , arriving at twelve pm and reporting for work at three.
All in all a very busy but educational and enjoyable week. I myself learnt a lot and have brought
back a few ideas I hope to pass on to CAB here in Hong Kong. A couple of things that particularly
caught my attention included the excellent pitch demarcation that they have at every game,
even at schools games, there are never any spectators or players any closer than about 5 meters
from the touch line. The average age of their referees is probably thirty and they are highly
motivated to achieve a high standard. The safety measures in place at all games as a
requirement for the game to take place are excellent motivated by their BokSmart program.
The small budget that they operate on makes me appreciate how lucky we are here in Hong
Kong.
I would like to thank the society for giving me this excellent opportunity and encourage all
members to strive to improve and perform to the high standard we are capable of , and who
knows it may be your turn next to experience overseas rugby.