Qualifications for U14 matches

[Dixie]

Bunniksider, I believe it is not unusual for some Societies to ask new ELRA graduates to gai some game time before asking to be assessed for Stage 3. Personally, I have grave doubts about the wisdom of this.

Once you have the ELRA certificate under your belt, you are confident in your knowledge of the laws, but lack the experience and guidance to control a game properly. If Societies put obstacles in your way, your post-ELRA motivation will decline. If you are asked to do unsupervised matches to obtain game time, you will fall into bad habits, adn may well not be entirely safe in your application of critical areas. All these things, a qualified advisor will help you with enormously.

Anyone who has started as a ref, particularly after a break from the game, knows that the learning curve for a new ref is steep in the extreme. IMO, Societies cannot afford to be picky about who they will and won't mentor; and for your own development, you need to get on the pitch ASAP while the ELRA learning is still fresh. The longer you leave it, the more concerned you will be about taking that big step into adult games.

Go for it - and good luck.

 

[Bunniksider]

Thanks for the help & advice guys.

I have been in contact with backrow regarding joining the society.

 

[backrow]

Bunniksider, I believe it is not unusual for some Societies to ask new ELRA graduates to gai some game time before asking to be assessed for Stage 3. Personally, I have grave doubts about the wisdom of this.

Once you have the ELRA certificate under your belt, you are confident in your knowledge of the laws, but lack the experience and guidance to control a game properly. If Societies put obstacles in your way, your post-ELRA motivation will decline. If you are asked to do unsupervised matches to obtain game time, you will fall into bad habits, adn may well not be entirely safe in your application of critical areas. All these things, a qualified advisor will help you with enormously.

Anyone who has started as a ref, particularly after a break from the game, knows that the learning curve for a new ref is steep in the extreme. IMO, Societies cannot afford to be picky about who they will and won't mentor; and for your own development, you need to get on the pitch ASAP while the ELRA learning is still fresh. The longer you leave it, the more concerned you will be about taking that big step into adult games.

Go for it - and good luck.

Dixie,
Agree with your sentiments about not being picky in accepting members or mentoring etc, but Societies nowadays have also to be aware of their liabilities in who they appoint to games. Only last week another player died after scrum collapse (no mention of any issues with the game / ref and don’t want to discuss further as I am not in possession of any details).
ELRA is the basis of refereeing qualifications consisting of 3 stages, Level 3 (final stage) is made up of the candidate refereeing 4 games, logging their performance and reflecting on it .i.e what they did well what they need to work on etc, with another game being observed with the observer making notes and going through them with the candidate a form is then completed which then finds its way back to the RFU and the candidate is issued ELRA3.
Manchester Society can/will not appoint referees to games until they are ELRA3 minimum, however they will accept members on a provisional basis until this is achieved –they can attend meetings etc. Although this may put them off joining they also they have a junior associate membership scheme in place allowing younger referees to gain experience and knowledge. In addition they will assist in getting prospective refs games at a suitable level and will mentor as far as is practicable, but that is s question of time and resources i.e. assessors.
This Saturday morning I will be observing a ref hoping to complete his ELRA3 stage, then its on to a Nat1 game as 4th official.

 

[Phil E]

Manchester Society can/will not appoint referees to games until they are ELRA3 minimum,

That makes no sense. You have to do your provisional games from within a Society to gain ELRA3, if the Society won't appoint you, then its impossible to achieve ELRA 3 Catch 22.

 

[GeorgeR]

Just sent off my ELRA 3 forms. I have had a coaching assessment and I was also videoed (with mic) by my society. The mentor from the society has been so helpful in helping me identify what and where I need to improve as well as tips on how.

 

[Simon Thomas]

That makes no sense. You have to do your provisional games from within a Society to gain ELRA3, if the Society won't appoint you, then its impossible to achieve ELRA 3 Catch 22.

We insist that the Society appoints the 'probationer' to the 5 matches (4 self-analysis, I assessed) to ensure that they are at the right level. As well as 3rd / 4th XV we use mainly U13 and U14 matches, where usual club refs step aside to give the ELRA3 guy/girl the match.

Those are our instructions from our RFU Ref Dev Manager (the guys who run ELRA for RFU).