You may well have noticed an addition to the Guinness PRO14 officials squad at the beginning of 2019⁄20, with South African referee Rasta Rasivhenge taking charge of Connacht’s win over Benetton and Scarlets’ victory at home to Zebre. Razivhenge brings with him a decade of experience officiating at the Olympics, in two Sevens World Cups, the Top14 and Super Rugby – we sat down to meet the man in the middle. Welcome to the Guinness PRO14 Rasta, what influenced you to come and referee in Europe? I think it’s a really good idea to cross-pollinate referees between different competitions, plus I like to travel! Dan Jones and Frank Murphy from the PRO14 team got the opportunity to referee in New Zealand recently, and it’s really beneficial – we all learn from each other. So I’m refereeing four games and doing one assistant referee match here, and really enjoying it so far. How have you found it coming over from Super Rugby and working with a new team of officials? Everyone’s been very friendly! I know most of them and have travelled round the world with a lot of the refs on the sevens circuit. Some of the guys have come down to South Africa and I’ve caught up with them there so it’s good to see my mates again! What’s your favourite thing about being a referee? Probably making mates all over the world, travelling I’d say as well, making a lot of friends but learning and growing also. Learning and growing your skills holistically is what I really enjoy about refereeing. How do you find it switching from Sevens to XVs? Well I retired from Sevens last year, it was difficult doing both but I got accustomed to it, got used to it, and then just focusing on XVs now which is where my targets are.
