As the Cape Town leg of the World Rugby 7s series kicks off today, one person will be finishing his 7s career after the competition.
After refereeing over 250 matches, South African whistle-blower Rasta Rasivhenge will be making his last HSBC World Rugby Sevens appearance. He’ll now turn his full attention to refereeing the fifteens game from the start of the 2019 season.
The 32-year-old former maths teacher turned professional referee has made impressive progress up the ranks. From local junior rugby into the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, Super Rugby and Test match grades over the last few years.
Rasivhenge took up the whistle in 2007 and quickly worked his way up the ranks to the SA National Panel. It didn’t take him long to break into the SA Elite Panel and since then he has established himself as a leading referee on the World Rugby Sevens Series. He is currently a member of the Western Province Rugby Referees’ Society.
Most successful 7s referee ever
World Rugby Sevens Referee Manager Paddy O’Brien said Rasivhenge has been the most successful Sevens referee ever. He refereed the 2016 Rio Olympic Final, and the 2013 and 2018 RWC Sevens Finals in Moscow and San Francisco. That’s as well as countless play-off matches during his successful six year stint on the circuit. He was the winner, with Spain’s Alhambra Nievas, of the 2016 World Rugby Referee of the Year award (pic right).
“Rasta was given an opportunity to referee in 2018 Super Rugby and impressed the Sanzaar management in his debut year. It’s important that he now concentrates on the longer form of the game without the distraction of Sevens. He can use the opportunity to reach his full potential,” said O’Brien.
Culture king
Rasivhenge has over 250 sevens games under his belt and O’Brien believes the environment and team culture he has been surrounded with over the past six years, will hold him is excellent stead going forward.
“Rasta has played a huge part in ensuring that Sevens refereeing is at the level of the playing of the game and he will be missed by our management and his peers,” said O’Brien.
“However, he has untapped potential in the fifteens game and it is quite clear he has a bright future ahead of him. We wish him all the best in his future endeavours.”
Banks Yantolo, the Senior Manager for Referees at SA Rugby, thanked Rasivhenge for his outstanding duty. “Rasta’s has been a model of consistency and he has performed with distinction in a stellar six-year period on the Sevens circuit, where he is a respected and popular official,” said Yantolo.
“It is very fitting that he will take the whistle for the last time in a Sevens tournament here in South Africa. We want to wish him well as he embarks on a full-time fifteens refereeing career.”
Rasta will be missed by millions around the world it was always a pleasure to see him arrive at the moment that a try was scored with his little jump in the air and a ninety degree turn to face the try scorer, thank goodness sky show the African rugby so we can still see him occasionally, sad to say you will be missed at sevens !!