The Boy and the Referee
Shane Young, a Grade 8 pupil at Hoërskool Stellenberg in Cape Town, had the day of his life at rugby on Saturday and it was thanks to a referee - a top referee.
Stuart Dickinson, who has refereed nearly 50 Tests and more Super Rugby matches than anybody else, was in Cape Town to referee the Super 15 match between the Stormers and the Lions on Saturday night.
During the week he and his compatriot and colleague Ian Smith went on excursions. One, organised by Ben Theron, the Western Province manager of referees, took them to JC le Roux and then on to Nederburg, clearly interested in the modified fruit of the wine.
They had lunch at Nederburg. At the lunch was Ian Jacobs and his wife, who said that they were moving on to another function - a fundraiser for Labori High School in Paarl. The function was to be mainly a wine auction.
Dickinson chimed in and said: "Why not auction me?"
The idea was that for the day of the match, the purchaser's son could spend time with Dickinson in the refereeing heart of Newlands. The idea was accepted and permission was sought from Ben Theron and Robbie Wagner, the business boss of the Stormers-Newlands set-up. They agreed.
Mark Young won the auction and paid R3 000 for his son Shane to spend the match experience with Dickinson. It was an exciting day for a young boy who is wide-eyed four days later.
Theron picks up the visiting referees for matches. This time he had an escort, for Shane Young went with him to the posh Cullinan Hotel to fetch Dickinson and Smith for the match.
What an evening! Shane walked out on the field with Stuart to inspect Newlands and gaze in wonder up at the stands where he usually sat with his father.
Dickinson was most impressed by the demeanour of the two captains - Schalk Burger of the Stormers and Franco van der Merwe of the Lions. They both bought into the idea and accepted Shane warmly.
When Dickinson went into the changing rooms to talk to the front rows and so on, Shane was there. When they went into the Stormers' room, Burger was being rubbed down but, with a big smile he put his hand out to shake hands with Shane, who was overawed by the size of the Burger hands. And Schalk invited Shane in after the match.
When Stuart went off to do the toss, Shane went with him, and came away with the coin as a souvenir.
After the match, Shane was back in the referees' changing room and then, with a rugby ball and kokis, he went with Stuart to accept Schalk's invitation and get autographs.
After matches the Western Province referees get together in their smart clubhouse on the Grand Stand where they make presentations to visiting match officials. This time Stuart made a speech and presented a signed jersey to Shane.
Shane's dad, Mark, said that they left Newlands after 11 that night - It was a 7pm kick-off - and within 10 minutes Shane was fast asleep.
When Mark went into his son's bedroom on Tuesday night, there was his son sitting on his bed, wearing his referees' jersey and clutching a signed rugby ball.
Shane was chosen on Monday for the Stellenberg Under-14A and he would seriously consider starting referees' courses as soon as possible.