By OPS
June 21 2013

This piece by Old Prop Steve although run on the Offy a couple of years ago is still relevant and deserves another airing: . . . A Good Match Needs A Good Referee

A Good Match Needs A Good Referee
 

Most people I have spoken to up and down the country seem to agree that the standard of Championship rugby has improved immensely over the past few seasons with better preparation, fitness, analysis, skill coaching etc. all playing their part. 

However, in looking behind the scenes, one element we should never overlook is the parallel progress being made on the refereeing front. 

Oh yes we all have our little moans at ‘old so-and-so who let their lot get away with murder’ – especially when we have lost! - or ‘that bloke doesn’t like us and never gives us anything’. But, as rugby people, after an hour to calm down and a second pint we usually agree that when all things considered he had done a pretty decent job. 

So what goes into producing these men who can do more to make or mar our afternoon’s entertainment than any other single person out there on the pitch? 

To find out I thought I should go to the horse’s mouth (no not Rod Coward this time) and met up with Steve Leyshon one afternoon recently at Twickenham. 

We often see Steve running the line at the Mennaye and he is a highly experienced referee himself who is now working for the RFU as Panel Development Manager for senior referees. 

His job is to identify and develop an ever evolving National Panel of top referees for the professional game a few of whom will hopefully go onwards and upwards to the Premiership, Heineken Cup and the international scene. 

He is a real ‘rugby nut’ who in his spare time is also Chairman of Avonmouth Old Boys RFC in Bristol who play in South West 1 and this keeps him in touch with the community game as well. 

As with clubs, the referees are organised in a pyramid and the local societies, such as the CRFU, administer refereeing for all the junior clubs (levels 9-13), schools, colleges etc. 

All referees including current World Cup men Wayne Barnes and Dave Pearson had to start life down there and everyone has to work their passage up through the levels.

Most at the basic level just do it for fun but are nevertheless watched carefully and some are picked out and invited to go further. 

The next level is called the ‘Federation’ and covers clubs like Camborne, St.Ives and, from this season, the Pirates Amateurs as well. 

In turn, the following tier up is known as ‘Group’ and this will cover National 3 level and as such requires much more travelling as well as yet higher standards of performance and fitness. 

The Championship and National One are part of a nationwide panel and part of this is also the Elite Panel who comprise the famous English referees who do the Premiership and other top matches and are all now full time professionals.

 Each step up the ladder makes ever greater demands on his or her time and only a few can make that commitment from job and family. 

Let us concentrate on the forty or so top men in the Championship and Elite areas where they have to be very fit indeed – just like players.

 They do several sessions throughout the year at Warwick University of ‘yoyo’ and ‘bleep’ tests as well as sprint assessments and have their own Conditioning Coach. 

Actually to keep up with play they probably run further in a match than most players do and, whilst they are not subjected to all the hits, scrums and rucks, they still have to keep all their wits about them and somehow have enough puff to blow a whistle!

The ten or so Championship referees also get together for three intense working weekends where everything is analysed and discussed and consistency of interpretation is strived for. 

Each match has a team appointed of four (five if there is a TMO facility) comprising the Referee, his two Assistants and an Assessor and keep in close radio contact. 

I was intrigued to know why some times these Assistants appeared to be flagging every five minutes and others apparently doing an ‘Admiral Nelson’ seemingly oblivious to what is going on in front of them. 

Steve assured me that they invariably tell the referee exactly what is going on but they will often try to keep the game flowing and he can always have a quiet word at the next stoppage. If however they are really concerned about the atmosphere developing or a lot of stuff is going on off the ball they may then decide to become more proactive with their flags. 

After every game the referee gets a DVD from the home club which he analyses himself and fills in a highly detailed chart with every scrum, lineout and key incident recorded together with what he did, why and, if necessary, what he might have done differently. The well documented scrum problems of the current game get a lot of detail and referees even have objectives in this area.

 Steve showed me one such chart after a recent Plymouth Albion v Esher match and the level of honest self-critical candour as well as detail was remarkable. This, together with the feedback from the Assessor and comments from the coaches of the two clubs (so Chris, Ian and Harvey can put in their two pennyworth on another chart) is followed by an in-depth de-brief with Steve during the week and goals are then re-set for the next match. 

One or two very young referees - like Luke Pearce - show a precocious gift for refereeing. 

He was noticed when he was just seventeen – and are fast tracked through the ascending levels and hopefully one day before long we will see this talented young Devonian on the international panel. 

Steve commented that, despite the travelling, all the Championship referees seem to look forward to coming to Cornwall, have no problem with the banter from the local crowd and have always enjoyed a good relationship with the Pirates’ players and coaches dating back several years. 

As you near the top of any pyramid the number of referees involved is, by definition, quite small and I put it to Steve that this could lead to over familiarity with the players for better or worse. 

He replied that they tried to rotate them as much as possible and to bring in referees from time to time from the Elite Premiership panel or elsewhere.

 In fact in order to give them more varied experience there has been a degree of ‘exchange’ appointments with Welsh and Scottish officials for a few seasons.

 This is now being extended to encompass all of the Six Nations. Perhaps it will not be too long before we have a referee from France or Italy coming down to the Mennaye. 

Just think about it. A conversation between an incredulous young referee from Perpignan with Paves and Potty Elloway on quite why he has just penalised them in the previous three scrums could be something straight out of “Allo Allo”. Pirates TV will love it! 

Anyway …it is really good to know that the supply of well prepared and ambitious young ‘whistlers’ is in safe hands for some time to come.