Referee Information
Referee registrations for the 2025 Whakatāne January Touch Tournament
Referee Registrations are now open! CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
The 2025 season sees the continuation of the improved and proactive changes made to the Whakatāne January Touch Tournament nominated referee registrations. These changes were made to ensure fairness and enhance referee health and wellbeing during the tournament and were proved successful in 2023 and 2024.
In the past, teams have nominated referees who do not attend or do not referee at the tournament, placing additional stress on our referees, who commit fully to our tournament. Once again, this will not be tolerated.
Teams must register their nominated referee before the opening of the Team Registrations to ensure teams are providing committed umpires and fulfilling our 'three-gate team registration process'.
If you are not associated with a team and want to umpire at the tournament, please register online so you are included in our planning.
Referees are not automatically carried over from previous tournaments. Referees must re-register each year to confirm their availability.
If you are a nominated referee:
As part of the Team Entry Criteria, each team is required to nominate a referee for the tournament.
To satisfy this requirement, the nominated referee must:
- Register as an available referee for the tournament;
- Sign-in with the Referee Directors the morning of the tournament;
- Be available to umpire throughout the entire duration of the tournament and
- Umpire all compulsory tournament games identified by the Whakatāne January Touch Tournament Referee Directors.
If a nominated referee fails to abide by these rules (or any future rules created by the Whakatāne January Touch Tournament Officials), it will result in the immediate withdrawal of the associated team from the 2024 Whakatāne January Touch Tournament.
Teams Please Note: A referee can be nominated to one team only (referees cannot be nominated for multiple teams), and it is preferred that all nominated referees are qualified. If you struggle to find a nominated referee, we suggest contacting your provincial Referee Director for help. Nominated referees must register themselves. Teams should not try to do this for them/on their behalf.
Please ensure all contact details are correct when completing the online registrations. Nominated referees will be contacted to confirm their attendance to the tournament.
Please let us know if there are any changes to your nominated team arrangements.