Referees
Muddy waters for refs
Dave Barton
MUD, mud, glorious, mud nothing quite like it for England’s top rugby referees. Or so 11 of them found out on a Land Rover experience day at Eastnor Castle in Herefordshire. The men in the middle got to swap whistles for steering wheels at the world famous test track in the dramatic setting of the Malvern Hills. Ed Morrison, the Rugby Football Union’s Head of Elite Referee Development, said: “I wanted to get them away from rugby and into a new environment. Then when we were knee deep in mud trying to change a wheel we couldn’t have been further from a rugby pitch! “Driving those vehicles in such extreme conditions gives you such an adrenaline rush and it’s an experience I for one will never forget.” Land Rover, the Official Vehicle of England Rugby, have nine Land Rover Experience centres across the UK offering people the chance to push themselves and the vehicles to the limit. Since partnering with England Rugby and Premier Rugby, Land Rover has hosted several of the Guinness Premiership teams at its flagship Land Rover Experience centre at Eastnor Castle as team building events. Guinness Premiership referee Andrew Small, who took part in the day, said: “Often there are just three or four of us away at games so to get the whole group together for a day was great. “The instructors were fantastic and the terrain was amazing. Some of the inclines were unbelievable – to have the passenger window brushing the grass was quite something.” Land Rover Sales Director Bruce Robertson, himself a member of the Elite match official panel, said: “The feedback from the guys was that they had a great time. It was a chance for some team building in a different setting to rugby. “We do all our training for the Land Rover G4 Global Challenge at Eastnor, in all conditions. It truly is an extreme and exhilarating experience and I hope that’s what the team got.”
Sussex referees look smart to celebrate qualification
Hugh Godwin
Seven Community Rugby referees in Sussex celebrated attaining their entry level award qualification by receiving specially designed jerseys from Greg Garner, the new RFU trainee full-time referee, at Hove RFC. The new shirts which bear the RFU’s red rose and the badge of the Sussex RFU were designed in conjunction with the RFU and provided by Gilbert. They were presented to the budding referees at a summer training camp conducted by Garner – who takes up his RFU role on September 1 – and which covered the introduction of the experimental law variations and practical interpretation. The seven referees are part of the Sussex Community Rugby Referees Group inaugurated by Peter Atthis, Sussex chairman of Operations, Policy and Strategy, at Burgess Hill RFC in September 2007. It is for referees at Sussex clubs and educational establishments who are not members of the Sussex Society of Referees, it forms part of the county’s Go Play Rugby and Play On campaigns and owes much to the sterling work pioneered by Ealing RFC. The Group – which is a partnership arrangement between Sussex RFU Ltd, The Sussex Society and the RFU Referee Department – operates over the Sussex CB area and has local bases connected to the county’s four rugby development partnerships. The essential ELRA (entry level referee award) training courses were provided by Dave Broadwell, Ed Turnill and Mervyn Jones of the RFU Referee Department. “The intention is to extend the Community Referee Group to accommodate the educational sector in conjunction with the Sussex Schools RFU during the season 2008-2009,” said Atthis. “It is a step towards RFU targets of having all referees qualified and CRB registered.” There are 12 registered Sussex Community Rugby referees drawn from Cinque Ports RFC, Crawley RFC, Haywards Heath RFC, Pulborough RFC, Worthing RFC and Dorothy Stringer High School/Hove RFC. Phil Bowers, chairman of the Sussex Society of Referees, promised the new referees assistance in their development from the Society trainers and in particular Gordon Burtenshaw, their Welfare Officer. The ELRA replaced the National Foundation Certificate and is designed both for new referees and those with limited experience seeking to acquire additional knowledge and understanding.
