Rasivhenge, Immelman among top refs
RASTA RASIVHENGE’S years of excellent officiating on the sevens circuit have been rewarded – he was named on the 2016 Super Rugby referees panel yesterday.
The 30-year-old from Johannesburg went on a sabbatical to Australia in 2014, following reports of an apparent fallout with then-referees boss André Watson, who was fired from the South African Rugby Union (Saru) in July 2015 after a CCMA hearing on the basis of a grievance lodged against him by members of the referees department.
The CCMA found that Watson’s employment should be terminated as the allegations against him were proved. It related to his management style with the referees, and Watson admitted in a statement to using foul language and that his “management style in certain instances might reasonably be interpreted as dictatorial, strict and abrasive”.
Rasivhenge, pictured, returned to South Africa for last year’s Currie Cup, and his impressive performances led to him creating history as the first black African to blow the whistle in a final, between the Golden Lions and Western Province at Ellis Park.
Now he will step up to the big stage of Super Rugby, and he will be joined by Quinton Immelman of Western Province, who has also worked his way through the ranks. The 34-year-old Immelman, from Somerset West, has been an assistant referee in Super Rugby before, and been in charge at all other levels such as Currie Cup and the old Vodacom Cup.
Rasivhenge and Immelman will swell the South African Super Rugby referee contingent to seven, with the others being Craig Joubert, Jaco Peyper, Marius van der Westhuizen, Stuart Berry and Jaco van Heerden.
“The inclusion of Rasta and Quinton on the Super Rugby panel is just reward for the hard work they have been putting in over the last few years, and I can’t wait to see them make their debut in the best provincial competition in the world,” said Saru’s General Manager: Rugby, Rassie Erasmus.
Apart from Rasivhenge and Immelman, there will be seven other new referees in the expanded 18-team Super Rugby competition this year, including Argentina’s Federico Anselmi and Shuhei Kubo of Japan.
The Super Rugby tournament starts on February 26 with a match between defending champions the Highlanders and the Blues in Auckland.
● The Stormers’ inability to rack up bonus points may finally be a thing of the past.
Super Rugby controlling body Sanzaar announced yesterday that the bonus-point system for scoring tries has been tweaked following their AGM in Sydney in January.
Instead of having to score four touchdowns to gain a try bonus point, teams will be required to score three tries more than their opponents to get the extra log point. So, if for example the Stormers score three tries and the Bulls zero, the Cape side will gain a bonus point. But if the Bulls score one try, the Stormers will need four to get the bonus.
In addition to the bonus-point law variation for this year, teams will also be able to choose to have a lineout if they win a penalty after time is up on the clock. In the past, penalties couldn’t be kicked out to touch to set up a lineout if the 80 minutes had elapsed.
Both law variations are set to help the Stormers, who have traditionally had a strong driving maul from lineouts. But more importantly, their bonus-point drought may be a thing of the past.
The Newlands faithful have often bemoaned the lack of try bonus points from the Cape side over the years, as the team struggled to score four tries. The Stormers garnered just two last season, two in 2014, one in 2013, none in 2012, four in 2011 and four in 2010.
While they ended second on the log in 2010 and 2011, and top in 2012, the lack of bonus points in 2013 saw them miss out on the playoffs by four log points to the Cheetahs, and they crashed to 11th position in 2014.
They were fortunate to reach the playoffs last year as a disastrous season for the South African teams saw none of the local sides ending in the top six on the log.