A Netherton teenager is making her mark on the touch field – but most days you’ll find her behind the whistle, rather than sporting a team jersey.
Fifteen-year-old Adelle Johnson is a Level One touch rugby youth referee.
She’s been training as a ref for a couple of years, and has got her sights set on refereeing at the Touch World Cup when it’s hosted in New Zealand in 2028.
Adelle picked up the hobby after accompanying her mother, Michelle, to a meeting about training more referees for the junior rugby space.
“In year nine I got the opportunity to ref at the Ngatea touch module for the first time, and I thought, yeah, I think this is the hobby for me,” Adelle said.
She quickly applied to referee at the Māori Touch Tamariki Tournament, where she qualified for her Level One referee badge.
Adelle now spends large chunks of her time on touch fields across the Waikato.
She refs for the Ngatea interschool module in spring, travels to Steele Park in Hamilton every week to ref for adult teams, and has recently returned from a stint as a youth referee for the Māori Touch Nationals, held in Rotorua on December 6-7.
“I was one of 85 refs selected [for Nationals],” Adelle said.
“It was a fun experience reffing all the adult teams and watching the teams do their hakas.
“And since I’m a Level One, you get paired with a senior to help coach you on more things… It’s improved my skill level a lot since I first started.”
Not all her time is spent refereeing though. Adelle also plays – she has been on the Thames Valley under-16 team for the past two years, and has also represented Hauraki Plains College on its junior girls touch, rugby, Second XI hockey, and social hockey teams.
Switching between playing and refereeing had improved her skills immensely, Adelle said.
“With reffing, you know the rules and you know what to do and you know how far you need to come back.
“And with playing, I can integrate my reffing into my playing skills so I’m a better player for my team and for myself,” she said.
“But I’ve still got a lot to learn with regards to my reffing and positioning myself – the more I work on it, the more I can improve on it.”
With all the training comes other improvements as well, like self-confidence and conflict management skills.
“It’s only a one-in-a-million chance that I’ll get someone who swears at me or starts trying to pressure me or anything, but if so, I can easily just stop the game, tell them to either leave the field or shut up and just continue playing, because I’m the one who’s taking up my time to come and ref these people, and I don’t have to,” Adelle said.
“It’s a job I love to do, and if someone’s going to pull me down, I’m not going to let them do it.”
Meanwhile, next year’s goals are already firmly in Adelle’s sights. She wants to referee for men’s teams in Hamilton, and she’s also applied to be a referee at the Māori Touch Tamariki tournament in January.
“The men’s teams – it’s fast, and it will give her the best opportunity to upskill,” Michelle said.
“The Hamilton Monday night module has Ifor Jones, who I’m pretty sure is [one of] New Zealand’s top touch men’s players.
“And if she can ref people like that and get the respect from all the other refs, then she’ll definitely go far.”
