Indo-Fijian teen sets sights on becoming top rugby referee

Thirteen-year-old Vaibhavi Deo wants to become a top-tier rugby referee in the field in future.

Deo currently officiates rugby matches under the Suva Rugby Union banner in Fiji’s capital, and has already broken barriers, being a Fijian of Indian descent.

Her family believes she has already broken the “glass ceiling” in taking up rugby refereeing.

She told RNZ Pacific that she aims to be a top international referee, recognised by World Rugby and to officiate Tier 1 matches, including those that involve the All Blacks.

She was a guest of New Zealand Rugby and Rugby Australia during the July test between the All Blacks and Ireland at Eden Park, an experience she said boosted her interest to become a referee.

“It was an amazing and surreal experience,” she said about the Eden Park invite.

“At first, I did not know that I was going to go down to the sidelines. It was a surprise.

“I was sitting on the stadium stand with my dad, and then one of the New Zealand Rugby officials came up to me and told me that I will be on the sidelines with her, watching what referee Nick Berry would do in his game, how he would be referring, and she took me down to the sidelines.

“It was an amazing experience to be on the ground, listening to Nick Berry and watching how he was controlling the game, how he was talking to the players, controlling the situation. It was a amazing and beautiful experience.”

Deo, a student of Adi Cakobau School outside Nausori where she lives with her family, said that experience, which also included meeting referee Berry and the All Blacks players, has given her more determination to chase her dream.

“I want to achieve my dream, and my dream is to become a international Tier 1 referee in the fifteens code, refereeing All Blacks test matches,” she said.

“I have not seen any challenges, but I am confident enough that I will be able to pass all the challenges upcoming in the future because I have been going through this with the help and support of my parents, with the support of Suva Rugby Union and James Bolabiu, the high-performance referee manager at Fiji Rugby.

“They are encouraging and motivating me, helping me and supporting me.”

Interest in rugby started early for Deo, whose dad Dhanjay, a journalist by profession, is a Hurricanes and All Blacks fanatic.

She got used to watching Super Rugby matches from the early days and grew to love the game, particularly taking in interest in watching the referees controlling the games.

“When I was small, I used to always watch rugby during the weekends, Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday,” she said.

“And while watching, as I was growing up, I used to see how the players would play, and seeing how the referees would control the game.

She described Angus Gardner, an award-winning Australian rugby union referee and a former World Rugby Referee of the Year, as “one of my inspirations”.

“[Gardner] is my favourite referee in the world, and he is also the best. Watching him made me motivated [to take up refereeing],” she said.

“Seeing how he uses techniques to control the game, seeing how he talks to the players, how he controls situations when conflicts happen or there is a mess up situation. So seeing him has motivated me.”

Dad Dhanjay said they support their daughter’s interest and believed she is on the right path, with all the help she is receiving.

He said she grew to love rugby early because “we have a tradition at home, from when she was not even born yet, where we watched a lot of rugby, Super Rugby in particular, and then we also watch international test matches, particularly of the All Blacks, because I support All Blacks, and Hurricanes in Super Rugby”.

“She was born in 2012, and since then, even when she was a baby her mum would be sitting with her in the sitting room with me, and cheering away and all of that every weekend.

“So, she grew into that culture of us watching a lot of rugby and that is where she got introduced to watching a lot of rugby from a very young age.”

He said his daughter started taking interest in watching referees during matches when she was in Year 6 at Dilkusha Girls School.

“She will pick out things like this was supposed to be like this, or it is a knock forward, or this line out is not straight, or the TMO will check whether it is a try or it is not conclusive.

“She started picking out things like that, and then we had a discussion and in Class 8 (Year 8), then she said I want to become a referee.”

As her interest in rugby grew, Deo asked her family to support her find ways she could develop her skills and interest.

That led to discussions with Bolabiu, Fiji’s top international rugby referee at one time, and the pathway was set that now see her officiating weekly games under Suva Rugby.

Bolabiu got her to be part of the match officials team at the Fijian Drua v Western Force Super Rugby Pacific clash in Lautoka this year, running as water-girl for the match officials.

There she met her favourite referee, Murphy.

“She was excited and told us after that meeting him ignited that fire in her more,” her dad said.

He said they now support their daughter and want her to achieve her dream.

Being a Fijian of Indian descent in rugby refereeing is a challenge by itself, Dhanjay added, but the family are confident their young daughter will make it to the top.

“She has put a dream together for herself and as parents, I think our dream would be for her to achieve that particular dream of being successful Tier 1 rugby union referee, and of course become the first Fijian of Indian descent to go into that area,” he said.

“She comes from a community where parents may not motivate or are shy from motivating their children to go into this area, which is traditionally has not been ours, and and this is where she’s breaking all sorts of barriers, the glass ceilings.

“It is also our dream to see that other girls in the community that we come from also choose this path, which they may think is not ours.

“Rugby is such a beautiful game, it does not belong to anybody, it belongs to everybody. That’s where I think our dream is for more and more young people, boys and girls, to dream boldly, dream big, and there should not be anyone telling these young girls and boys that this dream is beyond your imagination.

“Anything in life can be achieved as long as you make up your mind. And that is what we have been telling our children – that whatever they want to do in life, they just tell us, and we will support them all the way to actually accomplish that.”

For now Vaibhavi Deo’s Saturday’s are spent officiating as an assistant referee or fourth official at Suva Rugby Union matches.

These include junior rugby, college rugby, and club competition matches.

There is no slowing down, she said, as she builds and develops, focusing on achieving the dream she has set for herself.