New Challenge. Want to try refereeing

The Lost Sheep

All four provincial referee associations/societies will be recruiting for the new season.
Why become a referee?

Stay with the game as an alternative to playing.
Social – The social aspect of rugby is renowned. Refereeing is a great way to meet new people and make new friends.
Fitness – It is a fantastic way to keep fit. The IRFU have the highest level of expertise in this area.
Travel – The highest level you reach as a referee, the more involvement you will have at European Competitions, Rabo Direct Pro 12 League and the Ulster Bank League
Referees ‘a club within a club’ who meet regularly for meetings. There’s a great team spirit.
Ambition – could you referee an international match?
Tickets – Referees are allowed to apply for international and provincial match tickets.

The next refereeing course in Leinster is September 8th in Terenure College. In Munster the next course is in Mallow GAA grounds on September 9th.
The Ulster Society of Rugby Football Referees (USRFR) is running its next intro course to refereeing on August 18th. If interested, please contact the Referee Support Officer, Dan Carson (refereeing@ulsterrugby.com) with your name and telephone number.
I dont know when or where the Connacht refereeing course is

Losty Dublin

We get a lot of posters who tell us about referees who don't know the "rules" of rugby. Now's their chance

pickarooney

I'm not in Ireland but have been thinking of trying out refereeing as a way of staying involved after an ACL tear. What would you recommend as first steps, even before following a course?

prawnsambo

pickarooney wrote: »

I'm not in Ireland but have been thinking of trying out refereeing as a way of staying involved after an ACL tear. What would you recommend as first steps, even before following a course?

Possibly go to your local club and volunteer to ref under age matches.

amcalester

Is there a general age profile of new referees and what is involved in becoming a qualified ref?

How much does it cost? How long does it go on for?

wp_rathead

The Lost Sheep wrote: »

A
Travel – The highest level you reach as a referee, the more involvement you will have at European Competitions, Rabo Direct Pro 12 League and the Ulster Bank League

Is that Time Travel?:pac:

but this is something I'd be interested in, cheers for the post

kooga

Losty Dublin wrote: »

We get a lot of posters who tell us about referees who don't know the "rules" of rugby. Now's their chance

no rules - the term is laws of the game

The Lost Sheep

amcalester wrote: »

Is there a general age profile of new referees and what is involved in becoming a qualified ref?

No. New members joining can vary from 18/19 though usually much older.
You do the 1 day course then will as soon as possible start doing games. If you take up trial membership of your ref association you generally will start doing touch judge with an experienced referee for a few weeks(2 maybe 3) then will start refereeing games starting at under 13/14 level. You will have regular(monthly) meetings of your refs association where the professional ref development officer will do a presentation on a specific area of game. new refs will hhave an additional presentation/workshop on another area of the game.

Deleted User wrote: »

How much does it cost? How long does it go on for?

Free. A few hours

wp_rathead wrote: »

Is that Time Travel?:pac:

but this is something I'd be interested in, cheers for the post

Ha. It was a copy and paste from one of the ref websites of the info that just hasnt been updated...

kooga wrote: »

no rules - the term is laws of the game

Losty knows that full well... making a point....

swiwi_

I nominate awec.

stephen_n

swiwi_ wrote: »

I nominate awec.

Refs are supposed to stop arguments, not start them.

Stheno

how got would you need to be?

stephen_n

Stheno wrote: »

how got would you need to be?

Very well got indeed!

Stheno

stephen_n wrote: »

Very well got indeed!

feck i meant fit!!

stephen_n

Stheno wrote: »

feck i meant fit!!

Not hugely fit I’d imagine at the lower levels, but I’d say a ref covers the equivalent of a 5k run during a game.

prawnsambo

swiwi_ wrote: »

I nominate awec.

All the Pro 14 refs are poised to register on boards.

Stheno

prawnsambo wrote: »

All the Pro 14 refs are poised to register on boards.

Clancy especially

The Lost Sheep

Stheno wrote: »

how fit would you need to be?

It varies considerably depending on the level of games you referee. Fit enough though.

stephen_n wrote: »

Not hugely fit I’d imagine at the lower levels, but I’d say a ref covers the equivalent of a 5k run during a game.

More than that but only really at higher levels which a new ref wont be doing that soon unless they take to it very well and progress very quickly through the ranks
You start refereeing the younger age groups not any adult rugby so you would need to be fit enough to be able to properly manage a group of 30 13/14 year olds running around for close to an hour and then the 5/6 subs who can come on for either side through the game.
Lower levels of adult rugby will be far slower than most kids games but new refs generally wont be doing those games that quickly from starting to ref

Morf

I am already associate refereeing.

Find it very rewarding reffing games at my home club that the branch can't nominate a full referee to.

It's a good route to follow into full refereeing (one I intend to follow) if you want to stay closer to home but still make sure fixtures are fulfilled.

Not to detract from the great need for branch refs which you shouldn't worry about going for if you fancy it.

I have the IRFU's refereeing director's card and a general offer of as much support as I need if I chose to commit to it which I'm sure would apply to any new branch refs.

The Lost Sheep

Morf wrote: »

I am already associate refereeing.

Find it very rewarding reffing games at my home club that the branch can't nominate a full referee to.

It's a good route to follow into full refereeing (one I intend to follow) if you want to stay closer to home but still make sure fixtures are fulfilled.

Not to detract from the great need for branch refs which you shouldn't worry about going for if you fancy it.

I have the IRFU's refereeing director's card and a general offer of as much support as I need if I chose to commit to it which I'm sure would apply to any new branch refs.

I started as an associate ref. Did that for 12 months before doing the full course.
I agree its a great start and IRFU have in place another course which is not associate reffing where you only ref in your own club at underage and shouldnt be wearing official ref gear but the community ref course which limits you to doing games in your own club or clubs close to you. You are a member of MAR/ARCB/ARLB with that

Losty Dublin

The Lost Sheep wrote: »

It varies considerably depending on the level of games you referee. Fit enough though.
More than that but only really at higher levels which a new ref wont be doing that soon unless they take to it very well and progress very quickly through the ranks
You start refereeing the younger age groups not any adult rugby so you would need to be fit enough to be able to properly manage a group of 30 13/14 year olds running around for close to an hour and then the 5/6 subs who can come on for either side through the game.
Lower levels of adult rugby will be far slower than most kids games but new refs generally wont be doing those games that quickly from starting to ref

I keep a tabs on my distances covered with my iPhone. For a 40 minute game of tag I'll cover about 2 miles. For a game of 15 a side it comes in at about the same pro rata.

The Lost Sheep

The Ulster Society of Rugby Football Referees are holding a recruitment day on Saturday 18th August at Newforge Country Club, Belfast.
The course starts with registration at 9:30 am and runs through to 4:00 pm.
The free, one-day course is open to men and women over 18 and offers a basic outline on the key components of refereeing and those interested can then take the next steps to becoming a fully qualified referee.
If you have recently retired from playing or want to explore an alternative route into rugby then contact Referee Support Officer, Dan Carson (refereeing@ulsterrugby.com) with your name and telephone number.

Tim Robbins

amcalester wrote: »

Is there a general age profile of new referees and what is involved in becoming a qualified ref?

Age: Anything from 20 - 60.
Whats involved? Do a few courses.

My experiences:
The more you have played the more helpful. It's not essential but it is defo helpful. If you played at a high level of AIL and want to go into reffing you can be fast tracked if they see you have the right talent and are willing to give it the time it needs.

A lot of newbies will do a lot of the lower matches and then once they get a few decent assessments they will get moved up if they have the talent.

Generally. the lads who go up higher do a few games around the country either at IPAS or AIL. I tend to stay at mid level as it suits me better.

Originally, I did it because I wanted to be a coach and thought the reffing would help me understand aspects of the game more as I didn't play at a high level.

If I got involved in it younger I reckon I could have gone on quite high but then kids came just as went up a few ranks and I kinda stay at that mid level (J1 - J3 usually). I love going to watch my kids matches so you can't have it all. I am happier to stay at mid level.

So that means a mixture of games, some higher level than others. I generally train 1 - 3 times a week.

Also, when I first started to be honest, I hadn't a clue of aspects and basically got away with it and then only started getting better at it with practise and taking feedback from assessors and getting more training courses. There were times when I reffed a match a long time ago and didn't enjoy it but once I found I got the hand of it to be honest it is extremely addictive and enjoyable.

So why is it so addictive?
Because you get better at spotting things, better at communicating and better at enabling a good game of Rugby. Your game control and accuracy gets way better. E.g. in a game last year I pinged an x-AIL LH for boring in twice. I was 100% confident in this and explained his hip positions, head positions etc what he was doing and what I needed to see. Black or white and it was up to him to do what I needed.

There would have been a time when I would have just missed thar - or said something stupid: "now lads, we have scrummage correctly today... blah blah blah", it was much better being way more specific with the LH.

Another example, in nearly every game you see something different.
For example, a prop who has come out of retirement but scrummage to save his team because no-one else will play Prop and keeps giving away penalties. He is trying his best and apologising.

Your heart goes out to him (player empathy is very important especially in amateur rugby) but what do you do? Do you keep trying to manage the situation (it's only a 1.5m pitch); do you get rid of him YC or do you shout hold the push earlier or do you just go straight to uncontested?

What do you do? You have to keep control? These things happen every game; you chat to other ref's and assessors; you find ones who are really good and they give great tips. Then when it happens again - BANG. Done. Sorry LH, 3 penalties, Yellow Card.

So summary, for me the things that are most likely to mean this is for you.

1. You love Rugby. This is an absolute must. You must love the game, its skills; its complexity; its values.
2. You want to stay fit. You must be able to keep up with play. Simple metrics, can you do 3km in 12 mins? Can you do 10 * 100M's in under 4:25 (I'm making them up, other people will give more realistic times). Note: I was 10* 100 in 4M last season and was well able for J1 - J3.
3. You are prepared to take feedback (especially from assessors). In nearly every game there is something that should make you question. For example, a player got injured when a team were building phases to score? Did you emergency stop? Was it serious enough to? Did you see the injury happening?
Can you make a good decision if an emergency stop is needed? Or did you tell the physio to come onto the pitch provided the ball wasn't near the player before the match? Has the physio got the cop on to do this? If you have any doubts, you emergency stop obviously but how are you going to deliver that message to players who thought they could have scored?

4. You don't have an ego; or if you do, you are good enough to make up for it.
Most aren't.

Some refs love shoving the pedantic knowledge in people's faces. I have never see these guys do well. They just annoy people. Go to a match and annoy people. I don't get this; probably a little power trip. Thankfully, we have very few of these and they usually give up as the ego ref is not something that is really tolerated.

The lads with good people skills, passion the game and skills (mainly footwork, speed, acceleration, change of pace) usually fly along.7

For me, what I love about it most is that feeling of a good game and chatting to the players and coaches afterwards about various technically aspects; for example, you might have a team that do a move in defense or attack you hadn't seen before and you can chat to them ask them what do think they will make or close space. Or you might say, I thought you killed them anytime you went wide; was there any reason why you didn't switch your centres, throw a skip and have your FB hit the line flatter?

And they might say back, we were trying to do that off third phase or after we they identified they had pulled a backline player in?
So you ability to read games just gets better and better and then you enjoy your more. New refs is just thinking about laws,
Now I find I am thinking about 4 or 5 things about each team. This starts from watching them warm up. Who are they throwing to a lot in lineout jumps and do they tend to fire it out quickly or catch drive? You work on that mental model and are ready to expect certain things and what extra things you will need to look for and what time of positioning would be helpful? A team that go wide are more likely to throw to the tail? What about a 10 who can't tackle - is he going to standing at 2 on defensive throws? Then what happens if he doesn't? Will the other team be smart enough to target him? What does that mean for your positioning? It will generally give you have an extra second or two to get to the place you need to?

Players who can't tackle well -- once you start spotting them - offloads are more likely to come thru them? Does that mane you'r better to be flatter so you can spot a forward pass out of the tackle? Or spot the deep support line?

Anyway - that's what I mean - do you love Rugby?

That's the most important thing for me.

Spotted this for anyone living in dublin

http://www.arlb.ie/

BECOME A REFEREE
JUNE 26, 2018 EDITOR
If you are interested in joining the Leinster Rugby Referees please continue to the application process page.

Our Annual Seminar will be held on August 19th in Lansdowne FC.

Our next Recruits Course will be held in Terenure College on September 8th . Please contact denis.collins@leinsterrugby.ie for more details.

Why become a referee?

Stay with the game as an alternative to playing.
Social – The social aspect of rugby is renowned. Refereeing is a great way to meet new people and make new friends.
Fitness – It is a fantastic way to keep fit. The IRFU have the highest level of expertise in this area.
Travel – The highest level you reach as a referee, the more involvement you will have at European Competitions, Rabo Direct Pro 12 League and the Ulster Bank League
Referees ‘a club within a club’ who meet regularly for meetings. There’s a great team spirit.
Ambition – could you referee an international match?
Tickets – Referees are allowed to apply for international and provincial match tickets.

The Lost Sheep

Fancy becoming a referee? The Association of Referees Connacht Branch are holding a one day course next month for people who want to get involved. All the key areas of the game are covered and on completion participants can apply to become members of the ARCB.
When: Saturday 8th September, 9.30am - 4pm
Where: The Connacht Hotel, Old Dublin Road, Galway
RSVP: peter.fitzgibbon@irfu.ie

The Lost Sheep

Another reminder for those who might want to take up whistle as a full association/society referee this season

The Lost Sheep

All 4 associations/societies run courses around now as well for anyone wanting to take up the whistle

Connacht Rugby Referee Recruitment:-
ARCB Referee Course Saturday 12th January
This is a One-day courses with registration from 9.30am.
Those Interested in attending should contact Peter Fitzgibbon, Connacht Rugby Referee Development & Education Manager, E-mail: peter.fitzgibbon@irfu.ie Mobile: 086 832 2987

Leinster Rugby Referees will be running a new referees workshop on 26 January 2019
Venue: TBC
To register your interest go to http://tinyurl.com/y9qus2uu

next Munster new Referees courses will run on Sunday 13th January 2019 in Charleville Park Hotel, Charleville, Co. Cork.
Course starts with tea/coffee and scones on arrival at 9:30 am for registration.
Followed by Lunch at 1:00pm.
If you or anybody you know is interested in taking up refereeing then please contact Chris Harrington as outlined on poster below or complete email form at the bottom of the page and we will pass on your details to him.

The Lost Sheep

Two information evenings will be held in the coming weeks for those who have an interest in taking up refereeing for the 2019/20 season.

These info sessions will be in the form of an informal Q&A with Referee Development Manager and former Guinness PRO14 referee Peter Fitzgibbon. Peter will talk attendees through the process involved with becoming an affiliated member of the ARCB (Association of Referees Connacht Branch) and answer any questions people may have.

The first info evening will take place on Monday 15th April at Westport RFC with a further event on Monday 22nd April at The Sportsground. Both sessions will begin at 7pm.

If you would like to register for either event, or have any questions regarding the evenings, please email Peter at peter.fitzgibbon@irfu.ie.

The Lost Sheep

All 4 provinces running new members workshops in coming weeks
Will post all info when I see it

The Lost Sheep

New referees courses in each of provinces ref assocations/societies
In Leinster in Terenure College on August 24th there is a full day course from 9.30am
In Munster the Munster Association of Referees will be hosting a Recruitment Week running from the 14th September 2019 to the 22nd September 2019, our recruitment week will offer individuals the opportunity to attend the course at a time and in a venue that suits their own availability and geographical location within the province of Munster. The week will begin on 14th September 2019 where a day course will be delivered in the Hibernian Hotel, Mallow from 9:30am to 3:30pm. This will be followed by our mid-week evening courses beginning at 6:30pm and running until 9:00pm, taking place over four evenings in Limerick Institute of Technology (Monday 16th and Tuesday 17th September 2019) and Cork Institute of Technology (Wednesday 18th and Thursday 19th September 2019). These evening courses are a welcome addition to our recruitment process for 2019 and will allow interested individuals to attend the course in two separate 2.5 hour blocks. Finally, our Recruitment Week will conclude with our second full day course which will be held on 22nd September 2019 in Charleville Park Hotel, Charleville from 9:30am to 3:30pm.
in Ulster on Saturday 17th August 2019 there is a full day course from 9.30am to 4.30pm at Newforge Country Club, Belfast.
For more information or to register an interest in attending the course, contact Ulster Rugby Referee Development Manager, Richard Kerr on 07493 868388 (richard.kerr@irfu.ie).

The Lost Sheep

https://www.irishrugby.ie/2019/08/13/new-referees-courses-across-the-provinces/

The Lost Sheep

New Referees Courses are being made available across the four provinces in October 2020.

CONNACHT:

Date: Saturday 17th October

Location: Ard Rí Hotel, Tuam.

To Attend: Please register your interest with Referee Development & Education Manager

Peter Fitzgibbon by emailing peter.fitzgibbon@irfu.ie

More Info: https://www.connachtrugby.ie/community/becoming-a-referee/



LEINSTER:

Date: Saturday October 10th, 2020

Location: Dublin

To Attend: Please register your interest with Leinster Rugby Referee Development Officer Sam Holt by emailing sam.holt@leinsterrugby.ie

More Info: https://www.leinsterrugby.ie/new-referees-course/



MUNSTER:

Date: Saturday October 31st

Location: Charleville

To Attend: Please register your interest with Munster Rugby Referee Development Manager Chris Harrington by emailing chris.harrington@irfu.ie

More Info: https://www.munsterrugby.ie/domestic_news/interesting-in-becoming-a-referee/



ULSTER:

Date: Saturday 24th October

Location: Belfast

To Attend: Please register your interest with Ulster Rugby Referee Development Manager Richard Kerr by emailing richard.kerr@irfu.ie

More Info: https://www.ulsterrugby.com/rugby-in-ulster/rugby-development/referees/become-a-referee/

The Lost Sheep

First of the courses is scheduled for tomorrow in Leinster.

Every club is no doubt facing many challenges due to Covid-19 but the Ulster Society of Rugby Football Referees are no different. They have arranged a new referees course as follows:

Date: Saturday 24th October (10.30am via Zoom). There will be other parts to the course including an outdoor pitch session at an appropriate time in the future and all new referees will be asked to complete an online Affiliate Referee Course.