Just starting to referee

[Andrew1974]

Hi Everyone,

On medical advice I stopped playing last year at the age of 37. I've taken my ELRA 1&2 and I'm going to referee this coming season.

I've recently played in the North West Intermediate Rugby Union Leagues (link here if anyone is interested http://www.nowirul.org.uk/ ) and I will referee in these leagues at a simialr level to that recently played, Division 4 and 5 featuring mainly 3rd and 4th teams. I've received by first 8 appointments taking me up to Christmas (roughly every other week).

I've read lots over the last few weeks on this forum (and elsewhere) but would still welcome any advice for someone starting in this situation.

My main concerns revolve around remembering everything in the midst of a hectic game; that and making a major gaffe, like getting the score wrong, or stopping the clock an forgetting to restart it!

I'm looking forward to learning and contributing on RugbyRefs

Thanks

Andrew

 

[Womble]

Learn your definitions,inside out and back to front. Clear pictures in your head of what you are expecting to see and go with the flow. PPPPPP

 

[OB..]

You may find our Starter Pack helpful. (Comments welcome.)

The biggest problem usually is that positioning and reading the game are different skills from those you deployed as a player. For example you need to know where the ball is, but watch the players, not the ball. When a player kicks, you know roughly where and when the ball will come down, so you have enough time to keep watching the kicker in case of late hits.

Positioning is a bit of a misnomer - you need to keep moving most of the time during play to make sure you get a good view. Just don't go where you might expect to receive a pass!

You will make mistakes - everybody does. Learn from them but don't dwell on them. I'm sure the players will make more than you anyway.

Management - don't get drawn into a discussion. If asked (appropriately) explain a decision, but leave discussion until afterwards in the bar. Make a point of chatting to the players then. You can learn a lot that way.

After the game, make notes. It helps you to focus next time.

 

[Dixie]

My main concerns revolve around remembering everything in the midst of a hectic game; that and making a major gaffe, like getting the score wrong, or stopping the clock an forgetting to restart it!

Welcome to the forums, Andrew - and more importantly, welcome to the wonderful and rewarding world of refereeing. It's an extraordinarily steep learning curve - OB's advice about making notes regarding every game is very sound.

You are right to be concerned about the things you mention above, but there is no realistic prospect of avoiding these things. You WILL make these mistakes - I'd bet my mortgage on it. The thing to work on is how you react to the realisation you've made the mistake, as well as things you can do to mitigate the mistake.

On losing track of time: before the kick-off at the start of each half, make a note of the time you start the game; AND make a note of what the time will be 44 minutes after that. If you lose track of time, blow for the end of the half when the 44 minutes are up. You won't be far enough out for anyone to be able to complain.

Make sure your scorecard has space for you to put a mark whenever a type of score occurs -so you have a space for tries, conversions, penalty goals/drop goals. (you won't see the latter for at least 4 years, so it's perfectly acceptable to use the penalty space, and differentiate the DG by (for example) putting a ring around the marker. This way, you have two methods of scorekeeping: the individual scoring events, and the running total. Hopefully, both will agree at the end of the game; if not, you have the ability to check with any interested spectator; and if there are none of those, I generally find the events tally more reliable than my running totals.

As mentioned, you WILL make mistakes. Before patterns of play imprint themselves on your mind, the brain is spending time processing what just happened, only to find that lots more has happened while the first batch was being processed. In time, it gets overloaded, and you tend to shut down somewhat. That's when you need a pre-determines strategy to get though the game. Its all too easy to decide that you simply don't have what it takes to be a referee, and to quit despondently. In fact, all you need is time to overcome the errors, and to give yourself this time, you need a strategy to get the players off your back. The best advice I can give is this: even if you are convinced that the players are fully justified in moaning at you because you are crap and are adversely affecting their game, there is one Law you can enforce uniformly even when you are in overload. That law is 10.4(s), which warrants repeating here:

[LAWS](s) All players must respect the authority of the referee. They must not dispute the referee’s decisions. They must stop playing at once when the referee blows the whistle except at a kick-off or at a penalty kick following admonishment, temporary suspension, or send-off.
Sanction: Penalty kick[/LAWS]

If the players are moaning at you because they think you are not properly enforcing the LoTG, they cannot complain if you invariably and accurately enforce this one. If you follow your heart and let this one slide because the moaning is justified, your day will go from bad to very much worse, and there can be few of us on this forum who have not come off a pitch in near despair, and seriously considering quitting. Most of us, reflecting on our (crap) performance, then recognise that the game really started getting away from us when we failed to use 10.4(s), allowing an increasingly acerbic drip drip of negativity to pervade the pitch.

Good luck with the refereeing. You will cock up. You will embarrass yourself. And you will feel that you have no right to be wielding a whistle. The key thing to remember is that after 8 weeks of hard work and self analysis, patterns will have imprinted themselves, the arm will go out for advantage without you having to think about what the offence was, and you will be on your way to fulfilling your potential as a ref. You just need a dose of reality to help you get through the initial period when you are all at sea.

Let us know how you get on.

 

[4eyesbetter]

Chill out, relax, don't expect to do everything at once. Build yourself up in stages. Concentrate on a few very basic things, spend your first few games focusing on them. Then after a while you'll find that you've put them into muscle memory, you can do them without thinking (such as the advantage arm Dixie mentioned). Add a few more things in, focus on them, lock them in, find a few more things, rinse and repeat.

It can also be hard to get into the habit of pinging some things properly - not just dissent, although that's a very good example. Doing anything for the first time is hard, so you let that offence slide a few times, you're trying to be mindful of materiality, you're not quite sure if that was *really* what you thought it was, now you've set a marker and the players think you'll allow a certain amount of whatever it is, they keep doing it, you know you should do something, but you haven't been, and it gets harder to do something...

...and then, eventually, you pick the whistle up and blow it. Maybe the players grumble a bit because they thought you were going to let them do it all day. But it's a penalty to Blue, the match continues, the world carries on spinning, and the next penalty you have to pay for that offence is easier. And so is the next one, and the next one, and the next one. It's okay to have a few of these moments, it doesn't automatically mean you're indecisive or not cut out for it.

 

[Ciaran Trainor]

The North west leagues will be a great introduction to refereeing Andrew.
No doubt you will run into plenty of players you've come up against over the years so expect a little bit of light hearted stick.
My advice,
Get your kit bag ready the night before and ensure Whistle , pencils and Watches are all working make sure your colours dont clash
get to the game early, look the part, shirt and society tie if you have one and rehearse your pre match brief, Write it down..
above all enjoy it, if you were not there there would be no game.
You will get plenty of help from this site so post whtever you want.

 

[Womble]

Couldn't agree more, Don't try to be something you ain't relax and enjoy, PPPPPP

 

[Andrew1974]

Hi Guys, thanks for your advice. Now, if I can just remember once I blow the whistel I'm sure I'll do fine.

I've been thinking about the referee's score card. Whilst I've found a few examples on here and around the net none of them seemed to be quite what I wanted. So I've prepared my own. (attached below, along with mock completed example)

View attachment Rugby score card.xls View attachment Score card example.pdf

These will gather the info I want, but have I missed anything obvious?

Thanks again

Andrew

 

[loten10]

Like the score card. I think you have enough detail on there. Prehaps you could get rid of the row in which you write down the time of a score. I would argue that this could be a piece of information that you don't need to collect.

 

[crossref]

I think this is very good, 4 eyes

Chill out, relax, don't expect to do everything at once. Build yourself up in stages. Concentrate on a few very basic things, spend your first few games focusing on them. Then after a while you'll find that you've put them into muscle memory, you can do them without thinking (such as the advantage arm Dixie mentioned). Add a few more things in, focus on them, lock them in, find a few more things, rinse and repeat.

It can also be hard to get into the habit of pinging some things properly - not just dissent, although that's a very good example. Doing anything for the first time is hard, so you let that offence slide a few times, you're trying to be mindful of materiality, you're not quite sure if that was *really* what you thought it was, now you've set a marker and the players think you'll allow a certain amount of whatever it is, they keep doing it, you know you should do something, but you haven't been, and it gets harder to do something...

...and then, eventually, you pick the whistle up and blow it. Maybe the players grumble a bit because they thought you were going to let them do it all day. But it's a penalty to Blue, the match continues, the world carries on spinning, and the next penalty you have to pay for that offence is easier. And so is the next one, and the next one, and the next one. It's okay to have a few of these moments, it doesn't automatically mean you're indecisive or not cut out for it.

 

[Phil E]

Hi Guys, thanks for your advice. Now, if I can just remember once I blow the whistel I'm sure I'll do fine.

I've been thinking about the referee's score card. Whilst I've found a few examples on here and around the net none of them seemed to be quite what I wanted. So I've prepared my own. (attached below, along with mock completed example)

View attachment 2196 View attachment 2197

These will gather the info I want, but have I missed anything obvious?

Thanks again

Andrew

Looks good, but what are you going to do if they score more than 10 times in a half?........................which is entirely possible at the lower levels.

 

[Davet]

Score card - Personally - time isn't critical - you could lose that easily. Nor are the actual points. Why not just make a mark rather than do the adding - plus the way you've set it out you have to add across and then write the total vertically - not natural, and a tired and dehydrated brain will get it wrong.

Make it two sided - put the header and footer stuff on one side (not the home/away names colours and captain - keep these with the scores.

turn your score sections around - columns for T C P D along the top (each team gets a half vertically, then vertically mark in each score in the appropriate column. Attempts at PG or Con need to me marked either scored or missed. each score (T & C(success or fail) count as
one) needs to be on a separate line.

On the other side along with the cards issued you now need a section for rolling subs - a mark for each interchange.

But - doesn't your society have a standard one?

As far as making mistakes is concerned - you will make them. Important things are:
1) Don't dwell on it, shit happens, move on - instantly. If you think about for more than a split second then you will make another mistake, because you are no longer concentrating on the game, which compounds and you have a miserable afternoon.
2) Don't try to fix it up - NEVER try to balance things out by making a deliberate "mistake" the other way round to compensate. That simply leads to total loss of faith in you by the players and you will again have a miserable afternoon.

Womble's advice of clear pictures is sound. - Well before the game, in the days leading up, try to visualise situations, get clear in your mind what you think a good scrum should look like - heads up, spines in line, binding, no8 not slingshotting, flankers not swing out, props foot positions, etc etc. What should happen at a tackle, tackler release and get up, tackled player release ball, tackle assist and the gate, next player in, does he get hands on in time... imagine what things look like , several ways, and keep the pictures in your head.

 

[Pinky]

Andrew, welcome and good luck with refereeing.

What practical help depnds a bit on how you feel. If you are feeling nervous, then think about talking to someone at your society and see if they can arrange for a referee coch or an experienced referee to go with you to your first game, (or games if you prefer)

As for the scorecard, I just use a blank notebook. I do write down the stuff you have - esp names of the captains etc. I also note the time of scores. You will find out that you need to know this the first time you card a player. Remember to get his name, position etc and note the time he goes off (and why you carded him). You will need to know the score at the time for the discipline form

 

[TNT88]

Good luck with refereeing. It's a great way to keep in touch with the game. And now you are giving something back!

With time, before each game I note down when half time and full time is. That way, if my watch stuffs up I just go off the normal time and maybe add 1 minute for stoppages. (ie: I forgot to start my watch a few weeks back, so just ended the half at 12.31, because i kicked off somewhere between 12.00 and 12.01)

As for scoring. Personally I prefer a blank sheet of paper, where I rule my own lines. And keep a tally of tries/conversions. But I am slowly converting to the scorecards for a number of reasons. (in general it just looks less sketchy). And I like the idea of making your own, I might try it as well.

The only advice I'd have is to always keep track of where the ball is. And as a new ref, don't be afraid just to blow "ball unplayable" in a ruck if you genuinely aren't sure what just happened and all that's left is a pile of bodies

 

[Taff]

.... My main concerns revolve around remembering everything in the midst of a hectic game; that and making a major gaffe, like getting the score wrong, or stopping the clock an forgetting to restart it!

... referee's score card. Whilst I've found a few examples on here and around the net none of them seemed to be quite what I wanted. So I've prepared my own.

If you are worried about forgetting to restart the clock (we've all done it at some time - in fact I do it most of the time) this is todays Top Tip. As you wait in the middle for the kicker to get the ball and kick off, write down on the score card what time it is eg 2.02pm. Then, do a bit of mental arithmetic and write down what time you are due to end that half - assuming no stoppages eg 2.42pm. DON'T write it down before the game, because very few games actually start at the exact time. When (not if) you do forget to restart the clock, at least you know the earliest time that half can finish, and can usually remember how many and long injuries took eg "We had that stoppage earlier - that took about a minute, so that means we finish around 2.42pm".

Keeping the score is easier. Always jot it down but ask one or both TJs to keep score as well. Double check it with them at half time and other breaks in play. Don't be rushed - you're in charge.

Trust me, you will make mistakes but as you get more experienced you will make less and less. There will be some days when you sit in a cold damp changing room with no electric and only a cold shower and wonder "What the hell am I doing this for?" BUT when you get it right, both team tell you they've had a cracking game, you are made to feel welcome in the clubhouse with food and a drink, the buzz will last for days.

 

[Womble]

Just to add to the time discussion, When you do forget to restart your clock average it to 42 mins first half and 44 mins second half, No one will even blink

 

[Robert Burns]

Just to add to the time discussion, When you do forget to restart your clock average it to 42 mins first half and 44 mins second half, No one will even blink

Experienced eh! :biggrin:


Good advice though!

 

[Simon Thomas]

Just to add to the time discussion, When you do forget to restart your clock average it to 42 mins first half and 44 mins second half, No one will even blink

Sound advice from Womble. I like the two and four minutes differential !

I have added three minutes to my running time watch, on those occasions I have forgottten to re-start time on my stopped watch, or when the watch stopped mid-match as battery died (a Vets Cup Final !).

 

[Lee Lifeson-Peart]

Just to add to the time discussion, When you do forget to restart your clock average it to 42 mins first half and 44 mins second half, No one will even blink

Ah! I thought it was just me that did this now it appears we all do! :biggrin:

 

[OB..]

In one of my first matches (club ref, dragged in at the last minute), I was asked how much longer to half time. I had totally forgotten to look at my watch, so I did so at once and said firmly "a couple of minutes". In reality I suspect we had already played at least 45.