The Bay of Plenty Rugby Union is pleased to announce Jackson Reuben-Swinton will be the new Referee Manager.  Jax, as he is commonly known as, is a Te Puke local returning home after a number of years living and working for Ngati Porou East Coast Rugby Union as their Referee Manager and Rugby Development Officer.

Jax is also a former Bay of Plenty Rugby referee having refereed both rugby and touch for a number of years prior to his shift to the coast pre-covid.

General Manager Community Rugby Pat Rae comments, “I’m extremely happy to have Jax join the team.  He’s well known within the rugby fraternity and will be a great addition to the community rugby team.  He’s a natural communicator and people person and with a strong connection to the east coast and our rural and Maori clubs, he will be a great resource to build strong connections with those areas, where we traditionally struggle to recruit referees.”

Reuben-Swinton comments, “I can’t wait to get my feet under the table and get stuck in.  I’m on my own personal journey of understanding my whakapapa as well as learning to korero Maori and excited to see where both of these take me.  I have strong connections with a number of other sports outside of rugby and I’m keen to see how my connections can benefit the Bay of Plenty Rugby Union.”

Jax will start on Monday 12^th June and Cam Russell will perform a 2-week soft hand-over during the initial start of his time.

As well as Reuben-Swinton, a number of other staff changes and new additions can now be announced within the community rugby team of the Bay of Plenty Rugby Union.

As of Tuesday 6^th June, Brendon McKeown is now the new Coach Development Manager, the role vacated by Dan Goodwin in March 2023.  McKeown started with the union in January this year as the Secondary Schools Manager and has done a wonderful job, along with Womens Rugby Development Manager Alisi Wilson to support the hard-working Teacher In Charge at formulating Secondary School Boys and Girls Rugby after a number of years without a dedicated BOPRU resource.

Also as of Tuesday 6^th June, James Henderson is now the new Secondary Schools Rugby Manager, with Brendon taking over as Coach Development Manager.  Henderson also started with the union in February this year as the Junior Referee and Junior Coach Development Manager and has done a wonderful job in supporting the multitude of junior RIPPA referees and junior coaches during our term 1 RIPPA Rugby programme.  He’s also done a marvelous job at upskilling a number of teenage rugby players, both young men and women) to try refereeing as well as playing.

Also joining the community rugby team is long serving Greerton Marist stalwart and Club Captain Tim Smith as Match Day and Community 7’s Manager.  Tim’s core responsibility will be to deliver match days for the Steamers and Volcanix home games across the region.  With 3 Steamers matches in Tauranga, 2 in Rotorua and a Volcanix stand-alone game in both Rotorua and Whakatane, Tim will be responsible for delivering the rugby matches and curtain raisers for our flagship teams.  With a strong background in logistics and management, Tim will also be responsible for delivering the various 7’s tournaments held in November and December.

Moana Rangiaho, our hard working and passionate Eastern Bay Junior Rugby Manager has tendered her resignation effective 16^th June in order to spend more time with her whanau.  Moana has been with the union for 7 years and in that time has had a huge influence on her community, especially in the primary, intermediate school and junior club rugby space.  Armed with an infectious and positive personality, Moana will be sorely missed by the organisation.  She will continue to volunteer her time in the sporting arena, especially where her gorgeous children are active including Tai Mitchell, netball, touch in the region.  We wish her well.

Izzy Northcroft, our Central Bay Junior Rugby Manager will step in and take over delivering junior rugby activities in Eastern Bay from mid July 2023 and become a full-time member of the community rugby team as she combines the junior rugby manager roles for both Eastern Bay and Central Bay for the rest of the year.

On Monday 12^th June, Black Ferns, Matatu and Volcanix player Natalie Delamere joins the Bay of Plenty Rugby Union as Competitions Administrator on a part time, 6-month fixed term for the remainder of the 2023 year.  With a packed representative campaign due to kick off in August as well as a busy term 4 RIPPA rugby programme planned across the entire region, Natalie will have her hands full learning the competition systems and supporting our clubs and schools as their competitions reach the half-way point.

General Manager Community Rugby Pat Rae further comments, “It’s taken a while to get to this stage of filling these vacancies.  Some of these positions are permanent roles, others provide short term coverage as we near a crucial and busy point of the near, with NPC and FPC not that far away and a busy age grade and senior men’s representative campaign in the Northern Regions planned.  I’m extremely proud of the team as they have worked extremely hard in the last 6 months to achieve the participation results that we’ve managed to achieve.  With significant growth in a number of areas including teenage girls, junior boys, senior women and senior men the team have performed extremely well.  However, the additional staff coming online right when things get busy is just what we need to continue to execute our 2023 annual plan.”

Article added: Friday 09 June 2023