Wales
Structure
Level one:
Simple multiple choise test. Alowed to referee U7 up to U16s. Appointeed by home club or in some cases the organising body (for some cup events). NO formal requirement to attend Referee Society but encouraged to do so and step up to Youth / adult rugby.
Refs here fall into two catagories
a: doing it just to help out son / daughter's side "NO interest in becoming a proper ref"
b: Short term introduction for ref's looking to develop on.
Level two:
Appointed by a "Regional Appointment Officer" or at time by the Referees' Department at the WRU itself.
Refereeing Youth and local /District often second etc team rugby. standard up to L8-10 (England) approximately. Some of us referee BUCS rugby Filled with young aspiring referees looking to become the next RWC referee and old codgers like me who just enjoy the game. Some of us have no ambition to progress to the next level (age etc).
Level three:
This covers the Welsh leagues and right up to Saint Nige.
It is further divided, guys start at Division Three moving up towards the Welsh Premiership (2 / 1 / Championship and then the Semi Pro Premiership) and possibly the pro - game. The sky is the limit. Professional ref? Maybe!
All games appointed directly by the WRY Referee's department.
The Refs' dept supports all referees with training programmes. Usuallty they provide one training session a month. My district then adds a second society night. Personally I find the contact with the Refs' dept to be good. This may be because I am also my (semi-pro) club's referee Liaison officer. In that role I feed back assessments to the department on my senior colleagues, as well as look after them when we play at home.
Is the system perfect?
NO there are issues which are inevitable at times. Sometimes eyebrows ar justifiably raised when particular referees are promoted to L3 and sit in the Division 3 / 2 area. The inevitable speculation is that "who you know" got them there, whilst good refs wallow in L2 land for non refereeing reasons.
In truth some times it is indeed baffling when you see a certain ref go up and others stay down. But sometimes it is a case of the guy was good and showing great potential. Sadly he did not have the quality t otake the next step. This will happen. I can safely say this because I have never been chasing L3 status. There is therefore, no jealousy. I am too old (yes an age barrier exists, which is, of course, denied. But, why would you look at promoting a 50 / 60 year old referee when you get a longer term "return" out of a youngster.) I am not fit enough and I have not the drive to work on that aspect of my game. I am fit enough for my level and that is good enough for me (Yes I know I should always be striving for fitter and faster!).
In sumary:
The WRU is responsible, through its Referees' department, for the development / training and appointment of all referees but it delegates sown some of the duties. The system generally works very well. A young referee with potential will be identified and put in a development programme. Some fall away but generally we have good set of guys coming out the other end that I hope will give us a good set of officials at the Semi and pro end of the game. The likes of Craig Evans, Adam Jones and Daniel Jones (with a littel help From the RFU) came through this system. All three incidentallY, along with their colleagues also are only too willing to present training to other referees and are easy to engage with on a one to one basis.
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