Didds
A quick call to your own Society management might have been quicker !
The Le Havre Vets fixture at Havant is a late re-appointment, as you know.
Having refereed St Lo and Rennes at the Jersey Vets tournament, and other French teams at New Milton and Trojans in last few years, all were very comfortable with full scrumming. However expectation was U19 Laws - 45 and 1.5m, etc.
I suggest you agree it all with skippers pre-match (which is what you will do anyway). The Mariners will of course want full on scrums.
I found a couple of useful websites and my dear lady wife found some use for her French degree by coaching me in appropriate usage 'But don't show those to any French people, I haven't put the accents in!' I told her no problem as I thought I would stick with my acquired cultured Hampshire.
The match was the climax to an international day where competition had been held right across all the mini and junior age groups. Dads stopped coaching and got ready to play themselves. As was appropriate to the occasion we stood in line in front of the stand filled to capacity and sang our national anthems with gusto; some members even managed both national anthems.
Then the Le Havre side set the tone by passing out large nips of Calvados before kick off, all having agreed previously to contested melees and U19 variations. All went well with quite even levels of skill until some of the Mariners began to take the game a little too seriously and the bin was visited by one member for careless use of the right mitt. Nonetheless, it was a well contested first half, nothing asked nor given, and right on half time the visitors got over the line but failed to convert.
Half time pints of lager were distributed all round from the visitors with more Calvados for chasers; the port was passed unceremoniously by the Mariners. Again, fierce competition was the theme throughout the second half punctuated only by occasional deference to the great god 'Huey'. Play surged from one end to the other without score and with only occasional stoppages. With the Mariners beginning to flag under French enterprising play I was only a little surprised to see one of my Colts suddenly appear on the left wing. I thought this a little unfair as he insisted on using both legs to run. Needless to say, 3 minutes from time he tapped a quick penalty, side stepped twice and was over near the posts. As he teed up to kick the conversion, I had a quiet word and suggested that with only moments to go before time it would do wonders for the entente cordial if he were to slice his kick but, a true Vet in the making, he responded with 'No, we want to win this one' and scored the extra points. At that point the Mayor arrived and with his busy schedule in mind I called time.
Joking apart, I look on these touring side occasions with some trepidation believing them to have any number of dangerous traps waiting for me to fall into. Time, when it came, brought relief not only to my tired feet on the hard ground ( 3 games in three days) but also to my composure. You cannot win as a referee and have to work very hard to keep your officiating ethics sound while working to allow everyone to enjoy themselves.
I had more than one thank you afterwards so it was worth the effort and another scalp to add to my 'international' CV. I have a list of useful phrases should anyone require them.
