Last October I embarked on a new project, having enjoyed watching rugby for quite a while but not fully understanding the rules (or laws as they are called) I decided that my enjoyment would be enhanced dramatically if I learnt the laws. So I took the world rugby laws exam. It was very interesting and definitely helped with my enjoyment of watching the games.
I began to watch more and more games until I realised that watching them wasn’t enough anymore, I wanted to participate! Playing wasn’t really an option for me, but being the man in the middle, the ref, that was more up my street.
So one sunny day in April I trundled off to Perth to begin the first of my training days. I had already completed some online training and now was time for the first of the two practical sessions.
We had some tests to gauge our knowledge and then launched into the training, we were sent outside to look at and then officiate live scrums and line-outs, and then spent the afternoon on all the other aspects of the game.
All went well and I looked forward to the next stage of the course, the assessment phase which came a few weeks later.
The assessment day began with a meeting between the coaches and the officials, and then we split off onto our pitches. It was a tournament for p7 players and after a quick reminder of the law variations we got stuck in.
Some of the games were harder than others to officiate, but all in all it was very enjoyable. One coach objected to the “young girl” who “can’t be 16 yet” officiating. I felt complimented until he insisted on seeing my ID and then began to insult me and the trainer. But he was dealt with and the rest of the day passed well, I even got to do the final, which was when the line at the start of the post came after a particularly ferocious break down, the opposing team had lost their feet and were preventing their own player from rolling away, but I needed to ascertain who was at fault and who needed to be penalised. Both teams were trying to put their case across and there were a couple of Sirs, then they realised who I was and switched to Miss, and then settled on Ref. I re-established the rule of law by insisting that both teams were at fault and giving a scrum to the attacking team.
At the end of the day several coaches came up and thanked me for my refereeing, and once again I had a few of the coaches calling me Sir, bit that's okay. Being called Sir, Miss or Ref I knew what they were trying to say. It was a term of respect, and one that I hope to earn over some more time doing this refereeing malarkey...