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Cape Town - SARU’s general manager of rugby affairs, Rassie Erasmus, is chuffed by the quality of officials representing South Africa.
This comes after SANZAAR on Tuesday announced the match official appointments for the opening rounds of the Super Rugby competition.
Craig Joubert, the most experienced referee on the panel, handed the highly-anticipated North-South derby between the Stormers and the Bulls on Saturday.
Joining Joubert on the refereeing panel for the opening weekend are his compatriots Stuart Berry, Marius van der Westhuizen and Jaco van Heerden.
Rasta Rasivhenge, Cwengile Jadezweni, Rodney Bonaparte, AJ Jacobs, Quinton Immelman and Lourens van der Merwe have been appointed as assistant referees, while Johan Greeff, Marius Jonker and Christie du Preez will do duty as TMOs.
Erasmus said the match official appointments for the opening rounds of Super Rugby again underlines how high South African referees are regarded world-wide.
“South African rugby has always prided itself on the high calibre of match officials we deliver to the global game and nothing has changed recently,” said Erasmus.
“Craig and Jaco Peyper, with 93 Tests and 152 Super Rugby matches between them, are two of the most experienced referees on the SANZAAR panel, while our up-and-coming match officials, such as Rasta, Quinton, Marius, Stuart and Jaco van Heerden, as well as the men on the TMO panel, are all very highly regarded.
“The fact that both Jaco and Craig, as well as Marius, Stuart and Shaun Veldsman, have been appointed in the Six Nations, further underlines the quality of our match officials. At the same time, we are excited to see the next crop of match officials getting exposure in Super Rugby in the various appointments for assistant referees.”
SA Referees in 2016 Super Rugby:
Quinton Immelman (0 Super Rugby, 0 Tests)*
Craig Joubert (93 Super Rugby, 64 Tests)
Jaco Peyper (59 Super Rugby, 29 Tests)
Rasta Rasivhenge (0 Super Rugby, 0 Tests)*
Marius van der Westhuizen (9 Super Rugby, 1 Test)
Jaco van Heerden (6 Super Rugby, 0 Tests)
* new appointments
