New kid on the block “Harry Wang” has shown that he is serious about his refereeing career by refereeing the games at the second round of the PRFU 7’s league. Harry was ably supported by another young Level 1 IRB Referee Juan Engelbrecht, and between them, they refereed and touch judged 10 straight games.

Because of the Holiday long weekend and summer holidays, the usual top level match officials Phil Gittus ( A5N match official) , Richard Radier ( Manila 10’s Referee director) and Jay Savage ( A5N Match Statistician) were not available to referee round 2 and the responsibility to officiate the games fell on the shoulders of younger less experienced brigade of Harry Wang and Juan Engelbrecht.

To their credit, only one yellow card was awarded in all the PRFU Round 2 games and this was to a MAAP player for repeated offside offences. Matt Cullen questioned the player in the Sin bin and asked if he understood the referees decision and used the Filipino term “atras” which means “back” , the player acknowledged that he did but he was just over excited by the arm wrestle battle between MAAP and PNPA with each team’s pride on the line for the PRFU “B” Division final.

Congratulations to both Harry Wang and Juan Engelbrecht for stepping up to referee both the “A” division and “B” division PRFU 7’s League games. As we can all see, the future of rugby referees is alive and strong in the Philippines.