Referees for Africa

The International Rugby Board recently ran a course for coaches and referees at the University of Stellenbosch. This a part of the IRB's Talent Identification Programme.

The course lasted from 26 June to 2 July. The participants were from African countries. The facilitator was Stef Nel of the Western Province Rugby Academy. There were some top men there, including Nick Mallett, Selborne Boome and Johan van Wyk.

Those who looked after the referees as their main focus were Andre Watson, Neville Heilbron and Louis Mzomba, all experienced in refereeing at a high level and also used to attending courses and coaching referees.

The referees attending were Ignace N'dkikhan (Cote d'Ivoire), Jacky Husselmann (Namibia), Ramsey Olinga (Uganda), Caution Bwempe (Zambia), Victor Lie (Madagascar), Immanuel Masinki (Botswana), Bahroun Heykel (Tunisia), Johnbosco Mwamba (Kenya) - eight referees in all.

The referees and the coaches mixed but some aspects were specific to each group. The referees went through every aspect of the law and then had the chance to out things into practice. There were two teams of players from the Western Province Rugby Academy and they would play out situations requested by the coaches. A referee would then referee these situations.

On the last day the two teams played a full match, and the referees took turn to referee eight minutes at a time.

At the end they were given advice and areas that required attention. These areas were to be attended to before a follow-up course takes place.