Young referees

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Transcript

00:00We're here down at Swansea University and working with some young academy referees and

00:13developing and honing their refereeing skills.

00:16Fortunately we've developed a relationship with the three Bucks universities in Cardiff,

00:20Cardiff Met and Swansea and we've got about nine referees who frequently come on a Monday

00:25evening down to these sessions just to train live line-outs, live scrums and live plays

00:32really just so they get a good feel of understanding positional awareness and what it feels and

00:37looks like to referee a scrum and a line-out.

00:39Generally people come into refereeing when their playing career has ended, that historically

00:44was probably people in their thirties.

00:46Now we're finding younger people taking up the whistle, we've got one young referee,

00:51Josh Seeley, who wasn't picked for the Doerr Shield this year under 16s and he's now transferred

00:56his arm at refereeing.

00:58Another one, Caron Sean, who's a former Bucks, Ospreys 18s, Ospreys 16s, played with Dav

01:04Jenkins at age grade, was playing with Nathan in the Premiership last year and unfortunately

01:08an injury debilitated his career and he's come over to the dark side.

01:12It's just trying to focus on those kind of players who may not make it through their

01:16playing ability or injury curtails their ability to play.

01:20At this moment in time, it's the best time to be a referee as a youngster because I think

01:26there's a clear pathway.

01:28I used to think there was just, you have to do level one, referee junior rugby and then

01:33level two, youth, and seconds rugby and level three and you have to work your way up.

01:38I didn't think there was a pathway of going to pro refereeing until you're in your thirties.

01:44At the minute, we're training with the Ben Briggs Spears, the Adam Jones, the Craig Evans

01:52at the minute in the Vale on Tuesdays and we see what their preparations are like, what

01:57they go through, what their fitness is like and it's nice to be in their company as well.

02:02As a flanker myself, I think it very much aids me as a referee.

02:06In breakdown, I know what the flankers want and what they want to do and it helps me have

02:11that understanding of what the players want from me and what they need from me to ref

02:15the game properly.

02:16I want to just take my opportunities as they come and see where it can end up for me.

02:21I'd obviously love to referee a World Cup, in a World Cup, that is my dream goal, but

02:26getting there takes a long journey and I have to put a lot of hard work in order to get there.

02:32I think by bringing a younger audience in, exposing them to the late end of the game,

02:38be it as an AR5, just observing what happens, bringing referees into our review sessions

02:43on a Tuesday with our professional referees and our semi-pro referees at the SRC, helps

02:49the referee have a better understanding of what the requirements are and the demands

02:53and needs of refereeing in the late end.

02:56Hopefully, through understanding the errors of others, they can learn themselves but also

03:00they can find their own way.

03:02These sessions on a Monday night are brilliant to develop and focus their attention on how

03:08to navigate around the field, because believe it or not, trying to position yourself as

03:10a referee is amongst the hardest things you can try and do.