O’Neill is top ref

Brakpan’s Liezl O’Neill is the perfect example of someone being successful after having to make drastic changes to how she approaches the sport she loves.

The local woman was one of the top female rugby players around when an injury put a halt to her playing days.

She then made the decision to become a referee.

Last Friday she saw her hard work pay off as she was named the 2022 Valke Rugby Referees Society’s female referee of the year.

“I don’t have words to explain how it feels,” she said.

“It feels like one of my dreams coming true. It’s still unbelievable.”

She remembers the day her role model Lucy Aucamp phoned her and suggested she tries he hand at being an official.

“She told me rugby isn’t over for me yet. She said there was something better and I can still be involved in rugby. She told me to enrol to be a referee at the Valke Referee Society.

“From there my passion for rugby just grew. Now being a referee for the Valke is just amazing and I feel unstoppable at the moment.”

Transforming from being a player to being the one with the whistle could not have been easy.

“It has been hard. It was a really big challenge. From wanting to play the game to where I had to change my whole mindset to being in control of the match. A referee can make or break a game. If you don’t have control over the game you can cause a game to be won or lost.

“You have to know the laws. As a player, you don’t necessarily have to know all the laws but refereeing is a different ball game. It was difficult but now I’m on the ball. I see rugby differently.”

While she is happy with her achievement, O’Neill is aiming to become one of the top officials in the country.

“The next goal is to be one of the Springbok refs,” she said.

“I want to be able to referee a Currie Cup or a World Cup game. That’s my ultimate goal in maybe five to six years’ time.”

O’Neill wants to go on to join South Africa’s Premier Panel like her favourite referee Aimee Barett-Theron.

“For me, she’s the ultimate ref. She is amazing. She has got a wonderful personality and I look up to her a lot. I actually said to my mom ‘I want to be the next Aimee Barett-Theron’,” said O’Neill.

Getting there requires a lot of hard work and she knows it.

“Some people think a ref doesn’t have to be really fit but the thing about being a referee is that you actually have to be fitter than the players. You need to be where the ball is.

“If you do not where the ball is and you don’t see what’s going on you lose control of the match. So you really need to be fit. The Valke Society is very strict on it.”

This hard work seems to be paying off as she looks to progress in her career as a referee.