George Clancey, Super Ref?

toomevara

Anyone else massively impressed by George Clancy, the latest Irish ref to break through to the top level. Superb in Edinburgh V Toulouse, and an excellent performance tonight at the Glocetser/Ospreys game. He's even pinged a few crooked put-in's...respect!!!!

zAbbo

yeah, sin bins for killing the ball.

Great stuff.

Jackz

Nothing for a blatant trip and ospreys ruck near the line towards the end gloucester hand poped the ball up after no hands call.

So yea super performance from the Ref.

toomevara

Jackz wrote: »

Nothing for a blatant trip and ospreys ruck near the line

Doh! Put the mockers on 'im...ah well...reckon he's one to watch. Incidentally would you have given a straight red for the trip?

RuggieBear

Thought he was ok last night. have been distinctly unimpressed with him previously.

Marshy

Yeah I thought he did well. At least he showed he wasn't afraid to sin bin players for professional fouls. There seems to be a reluctance these days among refs to use the yellow card for cynical play. Take the example of Alain Rolland tonight, who let a couple of obvious ones go. It was the same in the WC too.

EdgarAllenPoo

How (in this country) do you go from the ref courses to magner,european and world cup matches? What's the progression, I pressume it's a bit of who you know as well.

dc69

Im pretty sure that i heard alain roland 8 years ago was reffing carlow under 14 maches,so thats how ,start to get noticed and work your way up

Stev_o

GDM wrote: »

How (in this country) do you go from the ref courses to magner,european and world cup matches? What's the progression, I pressume it's a bit of who you know as well.

Get qualified by the IRFU [have to take a course] start reffing at under age level work your way up into senior level and then you have to be commented as being very good in the AIL top division to go a bit higher

Downtime

You start off doing a foundation course in your provence and referee at J4 level. You get an initial trial assessment to be accepted into the refereeing fraternity. You move up the ladder, based on assessments every month or two, to different refereeing levels and those with promise are put on more courses - J4 - J3 - J2 - J1 - Under 20s - Leinster League.

You also gain experience touch judging at AIL Level - Div 3 - Div 2 - Div 1. A chosen few are put onthe IRFU Development panel where they get high quality matches and some of these end up refereeing games in different provences. Based on assessment scores alone you progress to the AIL Panel where you touch judge Magners and Heineken Cup and referee starting at AIL 3 moving to AIL 1. If considered good enough you start refereeing Magners and then possibly Heineken. A lot of HC refs are on the IRB panel of referees or touch judges and move up to refereeing Nations Cup, 6 Nations B and then possibly 6 nations.

From foundation to AIL it is about a 5 year process unless you are exceptional and possibly another 3 - 5 years from there to Heineken Cup

toomevara

V. interesting, is there a fast track for former club,provincial, international players? I would've thought they're the kind of people you'd want as refs, guys who've played the game at a relatively high level and have a greater insight into the realities of the game...

Downtime

There's a fast track for anyone that is good enough e.g. Rollers but he still started off at the bottom. Guys could get from foundation to AIL in 3 years but this changed 3 years ago where they now spend a year refereeing in the provinces before AIL.

You have to remeber that ex inter pros - players could be in their mid 30's when they finish playing which is late to start refereeing - you need to be able to give at least 5 years at AIL level and 2/3 to get there.

Luckycharm

Well there is a guy who I used to play with who got into reffing I reckon about 5/6 years ago. He would still be pretty young around 30 - I think he started actually reffing in Tag, liked it and continued. To show how far and how quickly he has progressed- last w/end he was the Touch judge at the scarlets V Wasps Hec match.

Stev_o

toomevara wrote: »

V. interesting, is there a fast track for former club,provincial, international players? I would've thought they're the kind of people you'd want as refs, guys who've played the game at a relatively high level and have a greater insight into the realities of the game...

Rugby club did a piece about Glen Jackson [Scarries 10] doing a reffing course. He was talking about reffing a match in New Zealand and that one player had been stamped at the bottom of the ruck the player immediately got and decked the guy who did it. Glen called play on as he said "I let it go cause i know being a player that he deserved it " Brilliant! ^^