NZ Touch has had three of its best up and coming refs involved in the Touch Football Australia National Youth Championships over the past two days.

Jacob Booth, Will Hutchinson and Cameron Wootton all traveled across to Australia with the two Touch NZ under 16 male and female teams to participate in the above tournament. These young men arrived in the Sunshine Coast last Saturday and immediately began preparing for the tournament by getting involved in team sessions. From arriving on Saturday through to Tuesday the three boys have been sitting in on team discussions, involved in Q & A, reffing the teams during scoreline sessions and refereed the warm up games each team have had. After the final training session on Tuesday Jacob, Will and Cameron all then went and joined the Australian refereeing contingent where they will remain until the tournament finishes on Saturday

The National Youth Championship Tournament itself began on Wednesday and is in its third day today. Each of the boys were appointed two games on each of the first two days and by all accounts are doing really well. Miah Williams who is another Touch NZ referee is also at this tournament and he was very complimentary on what he had seen of the three boys performances thus far.

Williams commented that Jacob's performances must surely have positioned himself amongst the top group of referees at this tournament and Will has clearly shown that he has done the hard work in  preparation for this tournament. 

Williams said " Will has really developed an incredible consistency to his on field performance. His accuracy and intensity is the same in the last minute of the game as it is at the start of the game". 

Cameron has really improved as the tournament has gone on. He has taken on the feedback given to him and become more and more consistent with his performances.

All three referees have said they have really learned a lot from the Australian referee coaches and that the Australian referees have been awesome to be around. They all seem to be really enjoying themselves and growing from this experience with the only negative being summed up in the words of Cameron when he said, "the heat is insane".

There are two more days of this tournament to go where each of the referees will do between 2-4 games over these two days. The three refs have performed really well on field and conducted themselves to the level expected off it. They are not only a credit to themselves and their families but also to their local associations and the Touch NZ referee sector. 

We wish them all the best for the remaining two days and we know they will continue to do themselves and us all proud.