Logan McLellan, of Wyndham, was awarded the Gordon Ferguson Memorial Trophy for the most improved years two to four referee and Simon Smith, of Kaiwera, was awarded The Brother Trophy, the Kevin Murphy Memorial Trophy.
It is the second consecutive year McLellan has won the trophy.
While he had done some refereeing when he was at Menzies College, it had been since he stopped playing that he had become really interested, McLellan said.
"I was still involved with the club but just got bored on Saturdays."
When someone approached him about refereeing, he took part in a training course and picked up the whistle last year.
At this stage he was refereeing games in the under-16, First XV, division 2 men’s and senior women’s grades.
"It’s a good way to get around and see how other teams do it."
He hoped to improve to the level where he could referee the premier grade.
Rugby Southland sent him on a referee exchange to Christchurch earlier in the year and he enjoyed the experience.
He was grateful to his coach Bevin Roy and Eastern Northern Referees’ Association president Lennox Crawford who gave a lot of time to helping with refereeing in Eastern Southland.
Former Wyndham Rugby Club referee Dave McKelvie also had given him some guidance.
Smith said it meant a lot to him to receive his trophy.
"It’s like a good sorts trophy.
"There’s some really good names on there that have been awarded the trophy."
He could remember Murphy refereeing a game he was playing in about 30 years ago.
It was called The Brother Trophy because Murphy used to call people "brother", Smith said.
He had been refereeing for about 11 years and started when he coached his son’s team in the younger grades.
Part of the role was to referee half the game while the opposition coach also had a turn.
"I quite enjoyed it, so I just carried on from there."
In the past he had mostly refereed school-aged children’s games but this year he had officiated at men’s division one and two and women’s games.
The younger players especially were grateful for a referee’s efforts and often came up to thank him after the game.
