| Birth name | Jason Jamaine Jaftha | ||||||||||||||
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| Date of birth | May 4, 1985 | ||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||
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Jason Jamaine Jaftha (born 4 May 1985) is a South African Rugby Union referee that refereed in the Super Rugby and Currie Cup competitions. He hails from the Southern Cape (SWD union) where he attended Zwartberg High School. [1]
The South African Rugby Union (SARU) is the governing body for rugby union in South Africa and is affiliated to World Rugby. It was established in 1992 as the South African Rugby Football Union, from the merger of the South African Rugby Board and the non-racial South African Rugby Union (SACOS), and took up its current name in 2005.
A referee or simply ref is the person of authority in a variety of sports who is responsible for presiding over the game from a neutral point of view and making on-the-fly decisions that enforce the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known, in addition to referee, by a variety of other titles as well, including umpire, judge, arbiter, arbitrator, linesman, commissaire, timekeeper, touch judge or Technical Official.
Super Rugby is a professional men's rugby union competition involving teams from Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Japan. Building on various Southern Hemisphere competitions dating back to the South Pacific Championship in 1986, with teams from a number of southern nations, Super Rugby started as the Super 12 in the 1996 season with 12 teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The Super 12 was established by SANZAR after the sport became professional in 1995.
He served on the Elite Panel and also officiated Super Rugby matches, but suffered a serious knee injury in 2014, [2] which ruled him out for the entire year. [3] He returned to limited action in 2015, taking charge of first class matches in the 2015 Vodacom Cup, [4] but didn't referee in the Super Rugby or Currie Cup competitions, although he was utilised as an assistant on occasion, including the 2015 Currie Cup Premier Division final. [5] At the end of 2015, his injury record also saw him demoted from the South African Rugby Referees' Association's Elite Panel to their National Panel, [6] and he was removed from the refereeing panel altogether for 2017. [7]
The 2015 Vodacom Cup was contested from 6 March to 30 May 2015. The tournament was the 18th edition of the Vodacom Cup, an annual domestic South African rugby union competition, and was played between the fourteen provincial teams in South Africa, as well as the Limpopo Blue Bulls and Namibian side Welwitschias.
The 2015 Super Rugby season was the 20th season of Super Rugby and the fifth season featuring an expanded 15-team format. For sponsorship reasons, this competition was known as Asteron Life Super Rugby in Australia, Investec Super Rugby in New Zealand and Vodacom Super Rugby in South Africa. The round-robin matches took place every weekend from 13 February until 13 June, followed by the finals series and culminating in the final on 4 July. This was the final season that featured a 15-team format.
The Currie Cup tournament is South Africa's premier domestic rugby union competition, played each winter and spring, featuring teams representing either entire provinces or substantial regions within provinces. Although it is the premier domestic competition, South African teams also compete in the international Super Rugby and Pro14 competitions.
