New Member Introduction

[Foggy-Balla]

Hello all. New member here, and in the absence of a new boys' section of the board thought I would stick something here as I'm going up through the age groups with my lad who is currently a U9.

I am Matthew, living in the SE with my U9 and his Mother, a Kiwi who grew up in an Ice Hockey playing family so who had no real interest in Rugby until she moved to Europe. We met through London Irish (she had got friendly with an expat in NZ who supported Irish and recommended as OH has an Irish background she check the Club out) where we are now all three season ticket holders. My second side is Munster as that's where my mother's family is from.

International-wise I have a big dilemma when it's an England/Ireland match! When still footloose & fancy free I used to follow the IRB 7s series around, and still find that the most satisfying to watch after Irish.

I played Mini Rugby from U7 to U12, in the latter years combining it with School XVs. From 13 on it was School Rugby, then I played two or three games for my first Club's senior side before going to Sandhurst & then played a bit at Squadron & Regimental level in the Army (& later TA). My final side was in Nottinghamshire, but I had to retire from all but Touch & Sevens as I have a permanently unstable shoulder after a nasty bobsleigh accident in the mob.

I did ELRA about four or five years ago, and for a time was an Oxfordshire Society member but couldn't put enough into refereeing because I was constantly on the move for work and also lost a lot of confidence after a Sevens tournament when I just couldn't make myself look like an authority figure.

Our lad was ready to play last year, so I signed him up and volunteered to coach. When it was heard I had passed the ELRA I was even more welcome; my former Society ref had me down as some sort of Demi-God despite my protestations I'd done nothing to speak of.

Have now found I prefer the refereeing to the coaching, and get a great deal of satisfaction from it. I like to keep a really flowing game going and only whistle as a last resort. My biggest critics are my lad and one of our parents, everyone else says I make a decent fist of it.

Loves:

1. Giving the kids a bit of theatre before the match with coin toss, choosing to start or ends & the like.
2. Seeing 300-odd children of all shapes and sizes at our Club smiling away on a Sunday morning enjoying a sport that has been with me as long as I can remember.
3. Learning more about the sport myself, and passing that on during training & matches.

Hates:

1. Parents who think the Club is about dropping the kids & going rather than being part of it and coming up to the Clubhouse afterwards for a drink, a bite & a chat.
2. People who don't get the Rugby ethos that a referee may be wrong, but out there in the middle he's right. Sadly this includes children...
3. Clubs who make up their own variations of the existing NRoP variations & confuse the bejabers out of oppo players and coaches alike.

Anyway, bit of an essay. Glad to be here and glad to have already had a nice welcome on another thread...

 

[Lee Lifeson-Peart]

Welcome!

Ignore my post (most on here do) in the other thread.

I will supply piss poor jokes, rants, the odd picture and the very occasional point (hopefully well made).

I, as many did on here, started out like you - refereeing juniors before finally joining a Society and I'm sure like me you'll gain a lot from the many contibutors most of whom provide well rounded arguements to support whatever point they are making.

Welcome again.

 

[Foggy-Balla]

When it was heard I had passed the ELRA I was even more welcome; my former Society ref status had me down as some sort of Demi-God despite my protestations I'd done nothing to speak of.

Sorry, how that should have read!

 

[Stormkahn]

Welcome aboard!

I'm going to jump on the bandwagon and introduce myself a little more too;

I've played very little rugby myself, spent too much time in Scotland/Shetland as a kid and didn't get into it as a kid when we finally moved to Windsor even though it was a big rugby school. Basically the teams were all sorted so I only ended up playing inter-house.

I've always loved watching though so I've been a spectator for 20+ years off and on.

I have 2 lads that play for Nottingham Corsairs;

1 currently U13 under the old system, he's a lock in his 3rd season and loves it.
1 currently U11 who's played since the U5s and plays NRoP. He's very much a back and usually plays out on the wing.
​

We have 4 coaches and around 20-25 lads, 2 coaches are qualified and the others are enthusiastic assistants. Now when we go away, to festivals in particular, the qualified coaches end up having to ref and the assistants run the two teams. The situation gets worse if somebody isn't available so I offered to ref so the coaches can actually coach. Simples.

As soon as a course comes up that's not 3 hrs away I'll do the ELRA but for now I'm just getting on with it albeit with some great support from everybody including the opposition.

I'm really enjoying it so far, we've never really had any problems with the reffing over the years. If it's a knowledge issue it's been tidied up at half time with a friendly chat, some are stricter than others but they've always been even handed. There's only one bad one who's outrageously biased against us and has been so many times; just by way of example he issued a try to one of his own players who clearly wasn't even touching the ball as he crossed the line let alone being in control and applying firm pressure!

ttfn,

Dave.

 

[crossref]

We have 4 coaches and around 20-25 lads, 2 coaches are qualified and the others are enthusiastic assistants. Now when we go away, to festivals in particular, the qualified coaches end up having to ref and the assistants run the two teams. The situation gets worse if somebody isn't available so I offered to ref so the coaches can actually coach. Simples.
.

that's exactly how I started out.
- then when my son got u13 whewre our club play league rugby, league rules say you can't ref your own age group, so I ventured out of my age group and reffed other age groups - teams/coaches I didn't know so well, a significant step
- then when my son got to u17 they mostly used society refs, and I wasn't needed so often. Plus as a club-ref I realised I had reached a plateau and wasn't developing.
- so last season I joined the Society

Lots of people start out like that.

 

[Foggy-Balla]

Welcome aboard!

Thank you!

I have 2 lads that play for Nottingham Corsairs;

1 currently U13 under the old system, he's a lock in his 3rd season and loves it.
1 currently U11 who's played since the U5s and plays NRoP. He's very much a back and usually plays out on the wing.​

​

I had several happy years at Nottingham Casuals from bout 2003. At the time a very happy Club & while the local leagues were tough they were pretty welcoming to this soft, southern type! Lovely bit of the world, & I would happily live there again.

As soon as a course comes up that's not 3 hrs away I'll do the ELRA but for now I'm just getting on with it albeit with some great support from everybody including the opposition.

Good luck when you do. I found it a really good course which doesn't dwell on the minutiae of the Law book but which instead prepares the novice referee for the daunting prospect of getting in the middle. If you have the right attitude everything else flows!

I was a bit sorry that for various reasons my refereeing never took off, but by the time my boy has gone through the age groups I will have plenty of experience and be ready for the adult game again, and then my excuse will be being too elderly

 

[Foggy-Balla]

Lots of people start out like that.

Thanks for your experience. I wonder if that's how I will get back into adult Rugby?

 

[AntonyGoodman]

Hi All,

I currently coach/ref for Banbury U11's. We have a mixture of different levels and experiences amongst our coaches and we have around 30 boys in our age group.

Like others have mentioned here, it was either stick my hand up and join in when I brought my lad to the club at U6's, or freeze on the touchline

Love the refereeing (mostly). My lad plays in the U11's side and although we don't have positions, he loves to get involved in the thick of the action at rucks and mauls.

Biggest frustration is being at the forefront of the NRoP and having nothing to refer to, other than a short pdf.

Great to see lots of new people here, like myself, who are new to this. Look forward to sharing our views and ideas.

Antony

 

[Pegleg]

Welcome. They seem an OK bunch. Some are a bit strange but then we are referees!

 

[beckett50]

Welcome aboard.

I hope that you find this resource as useful as we all have and continue so to do.

Never be afraid to ask, and enjoy.

 

[Steve]

Seeing as we're all friends here, I will shamelessly jump on Foggy's good nature and use this thread to introduce myself too.


Rather embarrassingly, I have been registered on this site for some time but never posted until recently; if I had utilised the RR member's expertise earlier as I am certain it would have been hugely beneficial to me. Thanks to everyone for the advice in my previous time as a lurker!


My 9yr old son plays for the Taunton Tigers U10s and has done so since he started as an U7. Usual story, I turn with my son on the first Sunday in September not knowing anyone etc and a week later I am the team manager - no doubt, this has happened to alot of people here. I currently referee for the U10s although I am also the team administrator and assist the coaches with whatever they need a hand with. We are lucky to have 2 qualified coaches (a L1 and a L3) and 2 excellent parent helper coaches (ex players) although even with 5 of us, 30+ players is alot of work.


My Rugby experience as a player is limited to school and college only so, although I have watched Rugby for years (Come on you Bath!), I am learning the game from a refereeing perspective in much the same way as the kids are learning new elements each season. Very rewarding to referee and to be part of the team but there is no better feeling in life than seeing my son enjoying a sport so much whilst developing as an individual and making life long friends in the process.




Oh, and welcome Foggy!

 

[Foggy-Balla]

Thanks all for comments. Just back from a Club Youth Committee Meeting & many there have followed crossref's path - indeed it appears we're putting together a strategy whereby parents are encouraged to have a bash at refereeing at the relatively benign Mini levels so they might e tempted to take it further...

 

[Stormkahn]

I had several happy years at Nottingham Casuals from bout 2003. At the time a very happy Club & while the local leagues were tough they were pretty welcoming to this soft, southern type! Lovely bit of the world, & I would happily live there again.

The Casuals are still going strong at the senior level, don't know much about the juniors and minis though. I get the impression that don't really have any because we never play them and they don't appear at festivals, especially the newly minted south of the river festival for all the teams in Rushcliffe (Corsairs, West Bridgford, Moderns, Keyworth and a few others).

The real shame is that everybody I know who talks about the Casuals speaks with a wistful voice and a little drool around the mouth because the facilities and pitches are so amazing :biggrin: Last winter was mild but the one before we had ducks swimming (not paddling) on one of the pitches.

cheers,

Dave.

 

[Foggy-Balla]

I don't think Casuals have a Mini set up & I don't remember them having one when I was there. However I am a member of their Facebook page & I'm sure I've seen something about them trying to get one going.

The set up was really good. Around about the time I joined they had one of those makeover TV shows in and the main room was done up. Problem was that it didn't work for Rugby so a lot of the makeover was taken out again IIRC.

We used to be able to get the Royal Engineers at Chetwynd Barracks down to do things like surfacing the road to the Club and taking down and re-erecting the posts for maintenance. Sadly this was stopped as the MoD decided it was taking work away from local tradesmen and also as taxpayer's assets & state employees shouldn't be working for private organisations for a nominal fee. As I was an Officer up at The Depot I used to get a bit of friendly grief about that.

 

[Dan_A]

Hi Foggy - I thought I recongised your user name from the Craic messageboard over at rugbynetwork (not an LI supporter and I post on those boards under a different user name). I coach/referee at Teddington just down the road from you (current u13s and u10s).

Haven't yet jumped age groups to do more junior matches but I will in time.

And regarding ELRA, I've been telling everyone at my club (both coaches and aspiring refs) that ELRA is definitely worth doing, especially in our neck of the woods where you tend to get really excellent instructors. Anyway, welcome aboard.

 

[crossref]

Alas ELRA is dead. The new course is Refereeing the 15 a Side Game.

not spoken to anyone who has done that yet, but someone from club is booked in shortly I will be interesdted to hear about it.

 

[FlipFlop]

Welcome 1 and all......

 

[Foggy-Balla]

Hi Foggy - I thought I recongised your user name from the Craic messageboard over at rugbynetwork (not an LI supporter and I post on those boards under a different user name). I coach/referee at Teddington just down the road from you (current u13s and u10s).

Haven't yet jumped age groups to do more junior matches but I will in time.

And regarding ELRA, I've been telling everyone at my club (both coaches and aspiring refs) that ELRA is definitely worth doing, especially in our neck of the woods where you tend to get really excellent instructors. Anyway, welcome aboard.

Thank you! As you may or may not know my user name is a transliteration of the Irish battle cry often rendered Faugh-A-Ballagh1 meaning "Clear the Way!" I felt it appropriate as I am ex-Army and involved in Rugby! I actually pinched it from the Army Rumour Service.

Alas ELRA is dead. The new course is Refereeing the 15 a Side Game.

not spoken to anyone who has done that yet, but someone from club is booked in shortly I will be interesdted to hear about it.

As long as the RFU keep it focused an attitudes rather than the law book it should be OK. What I liked about ELRA was that it gave the tools to referee with bolt ons for the specifics.

Welcome 1 and all......

Thank you!

 

[L'irlandais]

Thank you! As you may or may not know my user name is a transliteration of the Irish battle cry often rendered Faugh-A-Ballagh1 meaning "Clear the Way!" I felt it appropriate as I am ex-Army and involved in Rugby! I actually pinched it from the Army Rumour Service...
Thank you!

Welcome to the forum.

Motto of the the Faughs : ‘Faugh–a–Ballagh’ is an anglicised version of the Irish ‘Fág an Bealach’ appearantly.

 

[Foggy-Balla]

True, L'irlandais, but I thought explaining a transliteration of an Anglicisation of an Irish phrase would be a bit much!

My actual Regiment was the 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards who have a Latin motto, but it wasn't as catchy as a user name. We had a trophy from the Battle of Salamanca we were proud of, though!